[ot-caption title=”Sophomore Ana Simon looking through her Facebook page. (via Sophie Glassman, sophomore)”]

Social media is constantly on the mind of the modern day teen; it’s the first thing one looks at when getting up in the morning and the last thing seen before going to sleep.  As teens constantly check how many likes they get on a picture, the amount of followers they have, and the number of views on their Snapchat Story, the whirlwind that is social media seems endless and consuming. Teens are found feeling the pressure to have a social media personality in which they look like Blake Lively, dress like the Kardashians, and have the charisma of Jennifer Lawrence. Across the globe, insecurities and the pressure placed on conforming to society are ongoing challenges exemplified by the use of social media.

An Australian teenager, Essena O’Neill, has called it quits on all of her social media accounts. With more than 612,000 Instagram followers, O’Neill was able to make an income by marketing and endorsing products. Although life seemed great for the teen, all was not sunshine and rainbows.  Behind her Instagram filters, O’Neil was greatly struggling to be a person she was proud of and felt as if she was living a lie through social media.  On October 27, she deleted more than 2,000 pictures and dramatically edited countless captions to express her true feelings and struggles.

In a Youtube video, Essena O’Neill reveals her life on Instagram to be contrived, edited, and ultimately fake.  She shares that although she looks effortlessly stunning and almost perfect in her photos, this is actually not the case. Essena explains how she was consumed by social media, to the point that it was unhealthy. She, like many, obsessively checked her like count after spending hours straining to take and edit a perfect post. After years of this ongoing process, she finally came to a realization that she was living a lie. In her video, she expressed that she felt as if she was living in a 2D world, where her life was defined by posts and likes.  It was a world where she sought social approval from strangers.

Natalie Klar, freshman, agrees with Essena’s decision to alienate herself from social media. She stated, “I agree with her decision to leave Instagram because she was not being true to herself. She just wants to lead a true life and have people see her in a real light.”

O’Neill aims to recreate herself as she leaves Instagram, Youtube, and Tumblr to find her true self again. But, she isn’t stopping there.  In addition to this first step forward, she has created a website, LetsBeGameChangers.com. This website is designed to battle the pressures of social media and to help other young girls like herself to stop living a lie and embrace their true selves.

Teenagers today, including those in our own Pine Crest community, struggle with the same pressures of conforming to society. Essena has gained great support, as she is being applauded for being “brave and inspiring” as some begin to follow in her foot steps.  Yet, many question her intentions and ability to defy society. Sophomore Hayden Norris, discussed the pressures of social media etiquette as he said, “everyone forces me to like their pictures, and it makes me uncomfortable.”

Essena’s decision to “quit” social media is a step towards breaking the barrier between conformity and living as our true selves. Like the newly defined O’Neill, live the life you desire, post pictures that inspire you, and stay true to yourself.

Source: The Guardian, Lets Be Game Changers