Social Media Definition

Essena O’Neil, 19, was one of many young people profiting off the social media industry. Her rise to fame began when she was 12. Over the course of seven years, she became Internet famous, with all the trimmings involved, including sponsorships, thousands of followers and endless attention. Recently, she deleted her social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Her fame, she says, was a product of the illusion of social media. When approached by Buzzfeed, Essena said “I was addicted to what others thought of me, simply because it was so readily available, I was severely addicted. I believed how many likes and followers I had correlated to how many people liked me. I didn’t even see it happening, but social media had become my sole …show more content…
According to Misha Kavka, who is a professor of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the first reality television shows were along the lines of Candid Camera and America’s Funniest Home Videos, with hidden cameras catching humans being humans in all their relatable ridiculousness. The world got an intimate look into the homes and lives of other people, and they loved it. They wanted more. This led to the rise of competition shows, like Big Brother, American Idol and Survivor, the latter of which is the best reality television show ever. While both of these examples were still rooted in reality, the premise of the organic human was gone. Many moments in these shows were prompted, marked by the phenomenon of “cutscene interviews” where the participants in the competition reveal their thoughts to the audience in a way that’s vaguely reminiscent of Shakespearean asides. As of 2015, Survivor has won 36 Primetime Emmy Awards. The show’s success sparked an interest with entertainment moguls, who can smell a cash cow a mile away. Over the years, reality television has become more and more sensationalized, with more shows and scenes staged, and even completely scripted. Shows like The Real Housewives and Jersey Shore became popular because they were so sensationalized and so outrageous, and people starring on these shows became pseudo celebrities. Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is a prime example. Not everyone watched Jersey Shore in it’s prime, but “Snooki” was common fodder for jokes and judgement, as the media appointed representative of the show’s dumb girl and binge drinking schtiks. Her fame was fleeting, maybe, but she still got her fifteen minutes of stardom, all thanks to her popular reality television show. The phenomenon of semi reality television spread overseas, and many countries have their own