Last week, we at The Practice were particularly moved by the news of one influencer’s decision to depart from social media.

Just a few days ago, Australian Instagram sensation Essena O’Neill, announced in a controversial move, that she would be quitting social media. O’Neill, who first found fame on Instagram, amassed a huge following and fan base thanks to her modeling, fashion, beauty, lifestyle and travel shots.  Before leaving Instagram, her follower count stood at 612,000, while on YouTube, her channel attracted almost 300,000 subscribers, despite her being a relatively new presence on the platform. During this time, she predictably gained the attention of brands, whom she claimed would pay her hundreds or even thousands of dollars per image to advertise their products.

Essena stated that her decision to leave social media came after realizing that it was not “real life”, but merely, “contrived perfection.” She decided then to expose the truth about her experiences in order to challenge the types of images and content impressionable followers are bombarded with on a daily basis. In a bold move, O’Neill subsequently deleted more than 2000 of her Instagram images, and re-captioned many more. For example, in a picture of herself modeling a bikini on the beach, she changed the caption to: “NOT REAL LIFE- took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten that day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this.” In addition, she has since gone on to launch a new website, entitled “Let’s be Game Changers”. This, in her words, will include content spanning, “veganism, creative imagery with purpose, poems, writing, interviews with people that inspire [her], and […] the finical reality behind deluding people off Instagram.” There is also a section which showcases many of her past images with further explanation about the premise behind each, what really went into taking each one, and her thoughts and feelings at the time. Alongside this, she has included her recent videos posted to YouTube and Vimeo.

With a new-found perspective on the digital scene, will Essena’s statement have a long-lasting effect on a future generation of social media users? To us, her decision is certainly influential, and forces consideration about the consumer-driven culture we live in, where bloggers, influencers and social media stars are paid eye-watering amounts to advertise products, often stylized to present an idealized image. Whilst this is only a natural and lucrative move on a brand’s part, there should certainly be more done to ensure both influencers and marketers are upfront about sponsored products. Whether acknowledged in a side note on a blog or Instagram post with the hash tag #spon for instance, or even as part of the caption, this should certainly be a responsibility so that followers are aware of the intentions behind the ad. We hope that Essena will use her renewed status to take a positive stance on topics that matter, and we certainly don’t think that she should rule out social media altogether- her online influence can help spread these messages to a huge audience.

What do you think about Essena’s social media exodus? Do you think that her move sends a brave and inspirational message? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.