Vimeo/Essena O'Neill
Essena O'Neill.
If you didn't know her name yesterday, you probably know it today - it's all over social media. Which is ironic, because O'Neill is going viral for aggressively promoting her decision to quit social media.
O'Neill, 19, says she spent years curating her best self on Instagram.
She went to great lengths to make sure her followers saw her as beautiful and perfect. But she had an epiphany of sorts, and decided to leave the internet behind, saying keeping up with the flawless image she created of herself isn't making her feel good.
Social media, she declares in a video where she's crying hysterically, is not real.
YouTube/Essena O'Neill
One of O'Neill's older Instagram posts.
But ... she's using a lot of social media accounts to promote this way of thinking, and has shown no sign of stopping anytime soon.
She's also amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in the 24 hours since she announced she was over it.
Now she launched a site, "Let's Be Game Changers," to encourage others to quit social media (and to promote a vegan lifestyle).
In order to promote the site, she's using social media! It's all very confusing and hectic.
On LBGC she writes:
So my first little challenge for you is to go social media free for one week. Use your phone for texting friends ONLY. No Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube or Facebook or twitter or anything else where you view other people online. One week. Just one week. Post a caption or photo saying it's a personal experiment. THEN DELETE ALL THE APPS OFF YOUR PHONE. I want you to actually do this and see what happens. My whole life changed when I did. I finally woke up. I saw more, I listened more, I had more time, I found myself becoming more and more creative, less stressed, happier and with this new sense of power.... but most of all I just FELT MORE. I want you to feel this too. It's so beautiful. It's real.
But one paragraph earlier, O'Neill says for sure she'll still be using one social platform daily: Vimeo.
In her own words:
I will be uploading one video a day from Monday-Friday here, on this video section. I love Vimeo for it's positive and value based ranking, not likes or followers or BS ads.
BUT PLEASE CAN SOMEONE MAKE A SOCIAL SHARING PLATFORM NOT BASED ON VALIDATION IN VIEWS/FOLLOWERS/LIKES BUT SHARED FOR REAL VALUE AND LOVE. THANK YOU. PLEASE HURRY UP.