December 30, 2024

The Ever Increasing Price of The Internet’s Attention

From the time that we’re a child, we seek attention– attention of our parents, attention of our teachers, attention of the opposite sex– it keeps going on.  The Internet has made this attention seeking even worse, allowing for anyone with time, an internet connection and a camera to seek out and find attention.  The more you reveal, the better your photos, the more attention you can get.

One woman finally realized that the price wasn’t worth it.

EssenaOneillMeet Essena O’neill, an 18 year old from Australia who had quite the following on Instagram for her posting of photos that showed off her figure and gained the attention of the Internet.  Only she found that Internet fame– or the price of gaining internet fame– wasn’t worth it.

‘Without realising, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance. Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real,’ she wrote.

‘It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement.’

Read more: Daily Mail

I can imagine that it was pretty exhausting to keep up the lifestyle– I’m sure that many of the stock photos that we see take a lot more work than what we figure– the interesting thing that I find is that she will probably gain more attention than ever by choosing to leave than she would have by staying in.  In a sense, this is just more self promotion– even if it’s now directed in a positive manner.

Unfortunately, she’s exactly the wrong spokesperson for the plea to consider people as more than what they choose to display, because she’s only getting this attention because of what she chose to display!

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