Someone quit social media and is trying to blame social media for a bunch of bad things

[Tsukihime]

http://www.businessinsider.com/teenage-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quits-social-media-2015-11


Most of the time, when someone quits social media, I'm pretty whatever about it.


It's your choice. Don't want to waste your time spending hours looking at stupid cat pictures your 'fake friends' are posting?


Completely up to you.


I'd even say that's a wonderful thing: you should probably spend less time looking at cat pictures and more time looking at things with more nutrition, unless your career involves cat pictures.


However, here we have a social media celebrity who gets paid to make content.


And she decided to quit.


That's cool. Maybe she realized she got bored of it, or she found better things to do.


Most of us probably go through those stages in life.


But after reading the article and a few minutes into the video, that was clearly not the case.


Instead, she blames social media for a lot of problems in the world, and then goes on and on about how social media is a business, and if you don't believe it, then "you're delusional".


Oh, unless you follow someone with a really "clean account", whatever that means.


She goes on and on about how everything is fake, and that you're just being pulled into this culture of superficial and excessive consumption, mostly fueled by corporate greed.


She makes valid points, but her behavior is completely irresponsible towards her fans, the companies that are paying her, and also herself.


I don't find it justified to blame social media for all the personal issues people have.


Thoughts?


EDIT: ok, I'm getting further into the video.


She should not be on social media doing whatever she was doing. It's just not for her.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyI2Sugw6Yc


But on a more positive note, good for her.


As long as she's realized what she's doing is not healthy for her in the long-run and is willing to pull herself away from it, that should be seen as a great thing.


I still don't agree with the way she decided to handle it.

 

[Sausage_Boi]

To blame problems solely on social media, IMHO is entirely wrong. I don't know enough about the circumstances in this case to say social media didn't have a hand, but I would guess that SoMe, or no these problems would still exist.

I don't understand how she's being irresponsible to her fans or herself? I just honestly can't think of any reason being true to yourself and your fans could be irresponsible. I can understand the companies that pay her, but she's not really their property so they can just keep their money if they don't like what she says.

She does make some good points, but again I just think its unreasonable to lay blame for any social ill on social media.

 

[Tsukihime]

I don't understand how she's being irresponsible to her fans or herself? I just honestly can't think of any reason being true to yourself and your fans could be irresponsible. I can understand the companies that pay her, but she's not really their property so they can just keep their money if they don't like what she says.

I see this differently.


When you work for a company, there are certain rules that you need to follow. These may be legally bind as well if she signed a contract prior to starting her work, and therefore, accepting payment.


If companies don't like what she says, of course they can just keep their money. But what about all the money that they've already sent her way? Their loss? Should've known better?


I'd assume there was nothing legally preventing her from going ahead and doing whatever she did, but if there is...well, that's not good for her. It is irresponsible to her fans because she's making it look like her behavior is acceptable.


She's also basically attacked the companies that are paying her, which will affect the brands images.


Being a teenager working as a model in the social media business, I would even say that most of her followers are probably young people like herself. This is not something you, as a role model with upwards of 500 thousand followers, should be doing.


I'm all for people being themselves, but when it comes to business, different story.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

"I got swallowed up in using myself as a billboard for advertising clothing and now all social media is evil."

Its honestly an overreaction. There are seedy parts of everything, but that doesn't make social media itself a problem.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

It's like having gorged yourself on a big bowl of soup that you enjoyed, but now you are not hungry anymore, you spit in it and say it taste bad. I agree with Tsukihime that with her position as a role model, she should have handled this more delicately.

Instead of rage quitting, she should have kept using her status to pass her new message and actually help educate the other young girls on accepting their image and question what you see in social media. Now she leaves half a million followers even more confused.

That's what happens when a society cast in the spotlight overnight celebrities for limited accomplishment.

Don't blame social media themselves, blame what society makes of them.

 

[andrechan]

I don't know if I buy into this social media is the devil stance. There are fairly many things that have come out of social media. 

I read this article and somehow, I feel that what these kids need is more education and awareness on what's going on around them.

To make more conscious decisions, instead of just following trends.

This isn't really social media's fault though, but it's partly the reason, because of all the insecurity it causes. 
This is the era of connected-disconnect. You have to live with these things, and provide understanding on the traps that come with it.

(Idk...haha. It's like 3am. I dont know if I'm even articulating it right.)

 

[Sausage_Boi]

The more I see of this (bits and pieces filter through my non-RM life), it seems like she was modelling on Instagram without it being really obvious that she was just a model. Basically selling the story of a life that didn't exist outside of SM, and there was no markings linking it to a brand or an advertisement. She may have just gotten tired of selling a lie without it being labelled an advertisement. Everyone knows ads are fake...but if that girl's living the dream on Instagram...maybe I could too, one day. If I just buy all that fancy clothing...