Essena O'Neill response

So I’ve been thinking about this Essena O Neil chick and I’m in two minds about the whole thing. I applaud her bravery and that she’s using what she has learnt to coerce her followers to put their phones down and see the world/meet real people.  As all she knows is making money from Social Media accounts this takes some guts so good on ya.  

That said she may or may not realise that getting out and meeting people is most likely, going to be much easier for a 19 yr old ex model with a massive following then say, an awkward not able to make a living off her looks 30 year old muggle.  

She’s brave but also a little entitled.  Used to getting paid for what she wears and how she looks, now doesn't know what she’s going to do with her life and is asking us to pay for her while she works this out.  She cries that she has wasted the last few years of her life on nothing.  

SER.I.OUS.LY!?

Can I remind you she's 19! Hopefully she's got a few pennies saved up from getting $400 to wear one dress and can afford to learn a skill and do or be anything she wants.  Those two or three years of her life gave her a real platform from which her next project Lets Be GameChangers will start head and shoulders above that of someone without this advantage. 

She states she had it all at 16 and as a near fossil of 38 I gotta say, I think that right there is your problem love.  I believe that at 16 most people have not had enough life experiences and are not equipped mentally to deal with the scrutiny that comes with this kind of fame.  I was fanatical about pretty much everything as a teenager and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that many teens tend towards the obsessive when they find something they like.  So for any 16 yr. old that has an instagram career there’s no off switch.  It’s an insatiable beast which wants feeding 24/7 365.  There’s literally no let up and so no time at which you can clear your head, think about how important it really is that you gained or lost followers that day.  No wonder she's got burn out but it wasn't meant to be this way.  Many of us use social media as one of many ways to communicate, not as an all encompassing lifestyle.  

I'm a massive twitter fan and will at 5pm today be taking part in a chat entitled #FabricOfChange asking how consumers can transform fashion into a force for good. This would not be possible without social media.  The lovely Dave Grohl would not have played in Cesena had someone not posted a video of 1,000 fans playing learn to fly and had that post not gone viral.  This would not have been possible without social media.  

There’s nothing wrong with instagram as long as you think of it as pretty pictures and art, not a marker to measure your life by.  There's nothing wrong with Social Media but it should be only one of a myriad of ways that you are social. 

So I hope she takes this time to find a little balance, not attack social media as an all out evil but see it for what it is.  Like anything its an outlet that is shaped by those of us that use it.  

It may not sound like it but I honestly am rooting for her.

What do you think of the whole situation?  Is she right or over reacting?