Is social media real life?

I'm sure you have all seen the article this week about a young woman revealing the dark side to social media. Essena O'Neill had so many followers on Instagram her social media life became her income. Her life was branded as 'perfect'....she travelled the world, wore wonderful clothes and uploaded pictures of herself daily looking nothing short of incredible. However, she has this week disclosed the truth about her online life. The 'natural and casual' daily shots were in fact all set up. She was paid to wear designer clothes and do shoots for her Instagram. And this is becoming more and more common. Companies saw how many followers she had and would give her their clothes to market....and I mean, why wouldn't they? That's incredible free advertising for them! She talks about how she wouldn't eat before bikini shots and how she became obsessed with the social media world. She was earning a fortune! I think it's really great that someone has finally come out and said all of this. The amount of filters now on Instagram is crazy! Most pictures look nothing like the original. What is this obsession with how we appear online and driving for perfection. It's not real life. It's a photoshopped version. I understand the appeal and of course I do it myself to my pictures. I love photography so enjoy playing around  with the filters on scenery images. I do believe though that most people filter pictures of themselves purely because everyone else does. If no one did we wouldn't be so obsessed. We'd all look normal.
Teenage bloggers are making a fortune nowadays. Some up to £20,000 a month! But at what price? Their whole life is exposed. They document everything. Nothing is kept private. It's interesting as when I ask the children I teach what they want to be when they grow up, more and more now answer 'A blogger' or 'A you tuber'....I worry about the way children nowadays see the world and what pressures they have. I googled stats for anorexia in young people in the UK....a 34% increase since 2006....
Although I enjoy social media and understand how vital it is for companies and businesses nowadays I do think it's essential, especially from a teachers perspective, that the younger generations are educated properly on this topic. It is always important to look at both sides and not bring our children up to think that an un photoshopped picture of themselves is not ok. We should be giving them the self confidence to be themselves and educating them that not everything on social media is real life.

 I would be interested to hear other peoples opinions on this topic.


Article from The Guardian about Essena O'Neill:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-star-essena-oneill-quits-2d-life-to-reveal-true-story-behind-images