Essena O’Neill and the Show Business of Social Media

Instagram super­star Essena O’Neill rage-quit­ted social media in tears.

Many teen­agers and young adults seem to buckle under the immense pres­sure of online fame.

As a pro­fes­sion­al PR advisor, I feel obliged to ask this tough and uncom­fort­able question:

Let’s get into it:

How Essena O’Neill Rage-Quitted Social Media

Australian Instagram mod­el and influ­en­cer Essena O’Neill quit social media in a long, emo­tion­al YouTube video.

While listen­ing to O’Neill’s testi­mo­ni­al, I felt for her. She describes how she was drawn into a world of super­fi­cial acknow­ledge­ment and exploit­a­tion — where she now battles depres­sion and anxiety.

Let’s be clear: The part of social media that O’Neill describes is show busi­ness. And for over a cen­tury, it’s been com­mon know­ledge that this industry is par­tic­u­larly ruthless.

Navigating the treach­er­ous waters of online fame can take a toll on young minds, leav­ing us ques­tion­ing if we’ve inad­vert­ently thrown them to the digit­al wolves of show busi­ness without much consideration.”

Youth, Social Media, and Show Business: An Explosive Combination

Show busi­ness has many facets, and we share a col­lect­ive fas­cin­a­tion for celebrit­ies. Some artists become cel­eb­rated writers, musi­cians, paint­ers, act­ors, comedi­ans, etc. Others go on to become artists of less notori­ety. Most end up some­where in between.

Social media is no dif­fer­ent. As such a vast space, it’s home to all kinds of media. You could spend your entire online life deeply immersed in online chess, funny cat videos, or astrophysics.

Social media net­works and their algorithms are respons­ible for cre­at­ing risky online envir­on­ments. And we should strive to make online spaces safer for chil­dren and teen­agers. But as par­ents, we can’t just wait for that to happen.

If a young per­son wishes to enter into the world of online show busi­ness, par­ents must begin to under­stand what this means. Raising a social media influ­en­cer means expos­ing your child or teen­ager to grown-up busi­ness life. 

When Your Kid Has a Bigger Audience Than Your Local Newspaper

Wherever people dir­ect their atten­tion, there are busi­ness oppor­tun­it­ies. And so, it only falls nat­ur­ally for social media to host the show busi­ness industry.

If my son, born in 2014, came to me want­ing to start a busi­ness, being a busi­ness own­er myself, I’d be proud. But I’d also be care­ful: man­aging cus­tom­ers and money, stay­ing on top of tax law and oth­er reg­u­la­tions, expos­ing your brand to the gen­er­al pub­lic — none of that is without risk.

Even if you’re not selling any­thing ini­tially, you’re still part of the busi­ness industry as a social media cre­at­or. Managing an audience’s atten­tion can be emo­tion­ally tax­ing for any cre­at­or; anxi­ety and depres­sion are every­day struggles for many pub­lic creatives.

Was Essena O’Neill not men­tally pre­pared to enter the world of entre­pren­eur­ship and online show busi­ness sim­ul­tan­eously? If she had known exactly what she was get­ting her­self into, would she still have embarked on a career as an Instagram model?

If my son came to me want­ing to seek the path of show busi­ness, I would be ter­ri­fied. Many young tal­ents end up strug­gling with severe men­tal health problems.

The Popularity Contest: Coming of Age in Social Media

Being a teen­ager has nev­er been easy. While soci­ety has improved expo­nen­tially regard­ing human rights and mater­i­al wealth in the last cen­tury, being a teen­ager and com­ing of age means that you’re socially look­ing for your place in the world today.

Even grown-ups some­times feel pres­sured to put on a show on social media — even if it’s just for friends, fam­ily, and acquaint­ances. Feet on a beach, the tip of an aeroplane’s wing, well-com­posed daily out­fits, gym selfies beg­ging for approval.

Now, ima­gine com­ing of age in the world of social media. A teenager’s social “cat­walk” used to be con­fined geo­graph­ic­ally, but today that con­straint is long gone. That stage has not only become glob­al, but it’s also been monetised.

The high-school pop­ular­ity con­test has sud­denly become a world stage. And peer pres­sure oper­ates at the speed of light (lit­er­ally!) across the globe.

Social Media Stardom Is a True Challenge for Today’s Parents

I appre­ci­ate how dif­fi­cult the situ­ation is for par­ents of social media influ­en­cers. Things have happened fast, and we’re the first gen­er­a­tion of par­ents ever to deal with our chil­dren enter­ing the world of online show business.

But the harsh truth remains: 

The respons­ib­il­ity to keep up with the times falls hard on the par­ents. Whether their chil­dren’s busi­nesses are online or off­line is beside the point.

2019 update: A few years after her big announce­ment, Essena O’Neil is return­ing to social media. For con­text in case you were won­der­ing what became of O’Neill, here’s a can­did inter­view with her: