Last week’s trending article on CBC featured Essena O’Neill, an Instagram celebrity and model who received widespread praise for her “revolutionary” decision to throw away her Instagram account and say no to the shallow world of social media. This is where I sarcastically slow clap this young lady in mock enthusiasm for her obviously painstaking martyrdom.
Ironically, O’Neill has now gained more popularity on social media than ever. Her countless pictures are not just confined to being plastered on her personal Instagram account, they are now being exponentially blown up in countless news articles, Twitter and Facebook feeds, and all other forms of social media; all full of people discussing her ‘bravery.’
This just goes to show that you simply cannot quit social media. Nobody can. That is, unless you want to be an anachronism, completely irrelevant to our time.
‘Quitting’ social media may feel like a rebellious act, and maybe even an anti-capitalist one. We love to be as critical of social media as we are of capitalism. We argue that it shamelessly reduces the amount of physical contact we have with others; it monitors us, collects our data, and becomes an addiction. We may fundamentally detest it, but it is so ingrained in our everyday life that to effectively withdraw from it is nearly impossible.
Those who try to ‘quit’ social media are usually trying to make a statement by announcing to the world that they are rebelling against the machine. It is clear in the case of Essena O’Neill that ‘quitting’ social media has only further solidified her presence within it. It’s oxymoronic enough to make anyone roll their eyes. And let’s be real, when you leave, you’ll be back.
If you truly quit social media, you only hurt yourself.
Some may argue that they get along just fine without having any social media accounts. However, removing yourself from Facebook and Twitter nowadays is the equivalent of excommunicating yourself from the church in the 18th century. You will no longer be in the center of our community’s news, ideas, information, networking, and relationships with others, personal and professional. The cost of opting out is simply too high. You will only be leveling yourself to an obvious disadvantage, putting yourself below the threshold of today’s advancing society. You’re effectively putting yourself out of the game!
Although it’s good to challenge the social media system, as we find that it sometimes dominates our world a little too much, it is naive to think we can completely detach ourselves from it. Our obsession with technological advances has us eagerly imagining where we will be in the not-so-distant future, and I can promise you that social media will only become more prevalent, whether you try to escape it or not.
