Case Study

In the creation of our film opening, my group and I set forth a goal in mind which was to have it centered around the perception social media portrays on the individuals consuming it and the reality behind the creator of the posts. In order to demonstrate this concept effectively, we looked to case studies.

In 2015, Essena O'Neill was a fashion model (19 at the time) who looked like she had everything in her life and was living the dream. With over 500,000 followers she was a glamorous teen making a career on social media. However, this glimpse into her "picture perfect" life was anything but perfect. O'Neill deleted a majority of her popular Instagram posts and with the ones remaining, updated the captions.

Essena's captions

O'Neill was able to shatter the illusion that is social media. In her now updated captions, O'Neill pulls back the curtain such as when saying how she only posted certain pictures because a company told her to or how she would "want to look hot" just for Instagram. This thinking process of seeking validation or attention seems to be incredibly characteristic of social media and their users, especially the youth, and it is an issue we want to be able to bring more to light and give it the attention it needs.

This case study was something my group mate Katherine had brought upon early in our pre-production for our project. And by early, I mean as soon as she pitched the idea. This specific case study was news I had heard very faintly a few years back and it immediately caught my attention and piqued my interest for going through with this. It is the dichotomy between social media and reality that I have noticed a lot especially throughout my experience as a teenager in this day and age and it will be very fascinating to be able to portray this to an audience.