Is Social Media Actually Fake?! | My Essena Oneill Response

Essena O’neill., wow! I don’t even know how to start this blog post. I heard this story I think it was a while ago, but it didn’t catch my attention at first… so I just got around it. I obviously started watching her video, and then continued to watch different things about the subject.

If you know me, you would know that I don’t like to bring people down, but at this point I have quite something ( a lot ) on my mind, and I’m about to tell you guys my opinion on this.

It’s so wrong to blame social media or it’s users for a personal problem. Said by herself: “we post what we want to be seen”, so it’s basically all about what you aspire in life yourself. I don’t think its social media’s problem that you have to super-edit a picture so that you feel accepted, and mainly because it’s you who started judging yourself before anyone else. I think that one of the most amazing qualities a person could have is to be confident, and to know how to work it, if that makes sense. If you don’t find happiness in promoting products on social media, why would you even accept that? You could simply continue to deny every offer and use social media on a more “clean” way, and actually post pictures that meant something to you. You could have aspire to other things in life rather than just “posing for pictures” if that doesn’t complete you.

Either way, life is all about trial and error. I myself started studying Psychology and I never felt complete, so I kind of understand the fact that not everything we try in life is meant to be forever. Yet, we need to accept that we were happy for at least a minute while being there… we have to take the positive things and cherish them. If social media isn’t your thing now because you don’t find happiness on creating, then stop it, and start new things. The problem here is that you are still using social media as your money maker… if that makes sense. Not specifically promoting products, but still promoting yourself… which is basically what you did before. And can we understand the fact that you are still using your fan-base / followers to continue looking after you by creating a website that it’s clearly still making money out of your followers (word that you don’t even believe in anymore). Yes, you are not promoting “fake” stuff, but you are still using the Medias where people can see you…

Don’t get me wrong, I actually admire the fact that some people take their life experiences to create something good out of it, but it’s wrong when you are blaming “apps” for something that it’s actually more of a personal issue. That you are doing something (editing your pictures as much as you can, promoting products you don’t believe in, asking for money for every promoting photo), doesn’t mean that everyone is doing it. Then again, I love people who get up and take their experiences and transform them into ways of influencing people… hell yeah! But this experience my dear… it’s not social medias fault… it’s your fault. I guess you should call all of this “I was fake because what I believed Social Media was about”.

I’m done with people believing that every content creator is fake. I’m done with people thinking that all we do is just for likes and views. I post a picture on Instagram and I don’t even look at the numbers, I don’t even check how many followers I have there. My goal in life is to influence people in a positive way (hints why I was studying Psychology/ I want to impact the world), of course I aspire for more views on my youtube videos, but mainly because I want to share IMPORTANT messages, mainly because I want people to LOVE THEMSELVES. 

There is a thin line on social media that we all tend to forget about, and I’m including myself. It’s so easy to get distracted watching perfect insta themes, and perfect tanned bodies while traveling the world, but then again: WE CAN’T BE AS IGNORANT TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING WE SEE ON THE INTERNET.  Social Media is basically the new way of advertising and we have to understand and be aware of that. YET that doesn’t mean it’s fake. Each one to their own believes. Overall I think this girl needs to find her passions and understand that we are all around social media, and its ourselves who actually choose what we want to do with it... she happened to choose that life, and she finally understood that it wasn’t meant to be because she felt fake… but at the end of the day: “Is it really social media what’s being fake?”

PD: I understand her point on saying that social media is fake… but also understand the point where I believe that social media is not fake, there is fake people on social media, and ignorant people who want to be everything they see on social media. You really need to find passion on advertising or social media to be able to handle it.  It's so sad that people get so consumed out of it that loose their interest on connecting with people all over the planet, and even loose themself.

**This video could have added up to my point of view on the situation**:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE_t8mQaEcI

xoxo, 
Shirley Anne