“You owe some apologies”.
This is what has been said to the ‘Instagram Queen’, Essena O’ Neill, who went viral this week after announcing that she was quitting social media in a tearful YouTube video.
The 18-year-old Australian attacked the social media industry in the footage, deeming it fake and claiming that it made her and many others miserable and unhappy.
Now, friends of the model have aired their doubts about her motivations, claiming that she is in fact the one who is fake.
YouTube famous twins and former friends of Essena, Nina and Randa Nelson, believe that there are discrepancies in the video.
In a new video, they claimed that Essena had stayed with them in LA, an anecdote she referred to in her own video, but that her version of events does not match theirs.
Essena said of the trip: “I was surrounded by all this wealth and all this fame and all this power, yet they were all miserable and I had never been more miserable.”
However, the twins insist that they were never miserable, and that contrary to Essena’s claims, her boyfriend was not depressed over his social media centred lifestyle.
In fact, the twins uphold that Essena’s video was purely a means of self-promotion, and a way to publicise her new website.
Underneath the video, they wrote:
“Essena, this was mean what you did. You didn’t just “quit” social media. You attacked other people by saying that they’re fake and deceiving others.
“No YOU were fake and deceiving other people. It’s not fair to say other people are doing that and to use your trip to LA as evidence. You owe some apologies.”
Other social media personalities have questioned Essena’s logic in recent days.
Zack James, a Los Angeles-based CEO for social media company Rise9 and former YouTube star, wrote:
“Essena O’Neill is wrong. Social media isn’t a lie.
‘Social media can be whatever the user desires it to be. Allowing yourself to become pressured into a false life that you’re uncomfortable with is the result of your own actions and intent.”
Gabby Epstein, an Instagram star and bio-medical student said:
“Of course Instagram isn’t real life. Everyone, myself included, chooses the highlight reel of their life to present on social media – we all know that and it is our choice to be a part of it.
‘However, that doesn’t mean I have ever pretended to be someone that I am not on Instagram.”
Essena has yet to comment on the backlash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB3HtCMfZic
