Youtube and Instagram star quits social media after her 'self-absorbed' photos made her 'miserable'
Australian Essena O’Neill says she has made thousands of dollars from the product placement and sponsored posts that went out to her almost 700,000 Instagram followers and 250,000 YouTube followers but admits that it made her ’miserable’.
In the video titled "Why I REALLY am quitting social media | The Truth.", the 19-year old explains the pressures she felt to maintain her online success.
"I quit social media because of my 12-year-old self. I want everyone to know that. At 12 years old I was miserable because of the numbers I saw on a screen and at 18… I was miserable as well, even when I had it all," she says.
"I met people that are far more successful online than I am, and they are just as miserable and lonely and scared and lost. We all are."
"I feel like at 12 I thought I was nothing, and here - at nearly 19 - with all of these followers I don’t even know what is real and what is not because I have let myself be defined by something that is so not real."
The video follows Essena’s decision on October 27 to delete around 2000 photos from her Instagram page. She has also edited the captions of the remaining 96 and added what she feels are more truthful captions.
For example, she recaptioned this photo with the following:
"NOT REAL LIFE - took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten that day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals"
On her Instagram she also detailed her addiction to social media:
"Without realising, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance.
"Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. I was consumed by it."
Essena has now set up a new website called letsegamechangers.com and hopes to encourage young people to find validation through something more than their appearance and online presence.
She wants her followers to "create something. I don’t care what it is, art, a cartoon… a song, a poem, a piece of cloth, garden, a sport… Something that you can say after a week, ’hey I created this".
H/T: BreakingNews.ie
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
