--- title: Teen Instagram Star Essena O'Neill Quitting Social Media description: Teen Instagram star Essena O'Neill speaks out about the ugly truth behind social media fame canonical: https://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-02T20:55:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:39:44.339Z og:title: Teen Instagram Star Reveals Why She Is Quitting Social Media og:description: "It's perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. I was consumed by it" og:url: https://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaa7dce52529ecfd/69886f35a988caac886b5192/essena-o_neill.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2338 og:image:height: 1315 og:image:alt: Essena-O’Neill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teen Instagram Star Reveals Why She Is Quitting Social Media twitter:description: "It's perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. I was consumed by it" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteaa7dce52529ecfd/69886f35a988caac886b5192/essena-o_neill.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 02:55 video:published: 2015-10-01 section: tech topics: Instagram, social media, real-time images, app launch, server load, photo filters, Hurricane Sandy, visual communication, mobile phone photography, future of social media genre: interview, company retrospective tones: reflective, optimistic, personal, conversational emotions: nostalgia (medium), excitement (medium), stress (low) sentiment: positive audience: tech enthusiasts, social media users, photographers, business professionals, young adults people: Co-founder and CEO of Instagram, Mike organizations: Instagram, TIME products: Instagram content_suitability: disasters [01:54-02:05]; war [00:10-00:14] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # Teen Instagram Star Speaks Out About The Ugly Truth Behind Social Media Fame > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d8ace370-3925-46f0-b455-5fa839d65df2&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Is What the Future of Instagram Looks Like [Watch (HLS stream): This Is What the Future of Instagram Looks Like](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tIyzRJcR.m3u8) (2:55)  _Published 2015-10-01. As Instagram turns 5, the co-founder and CEO talks about where the app is headed_ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary The video features the co-founder and CEO of Instagram discussing the app as it reaches five years old. He describes how Instagram lets people see world events in real time, recalls the launch night and early server strain, and explains how a college photography class influenced the app's filters. He highlights Hurricane Sandy as a pivotal moment and closes by predicting that collective real-time capture through phones will define the coming decade. ## Key points - Instagram lets people see the world happening in real time, with examples including Taylor Swift's 1989 tour and protests overseas. (00:01) - Instagram launched right before midnight Pacific time, and the team was surprised when users rolled in from Europe and elsewhere. (00:24) - Keeping the servers up after launch was described as literally what kept the founders up at night. (00:47) - A junior-year photography teacher gave the speaker a plastic Holga camera and taught him that development chemicals change the tone of photos. (00:57) - The filters idea came from the need to create something that incentivized people to take photos. (01:24) - The speaker says images can be an international language because you don't have to speak English to understand a photo. (01:47) - Hurricane Sandy was a pivotal moment, as a coast of the United States came together on social media in a way not seen before. (01:54) - The speaker predicts the next decade will be when people realize the power of collective real-time capture of the world through phones, and that this will disrupt industries. (02:18) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:24] Seeing the world in real time. The speaker explains how Instagram shows world events as they happen, from concerts to protests and marches. - [00:24 to 00:57] Launch night and server strain. The speaker recalls the app's launch timing and the unexpected surge of users from around the world. - [00:57 to 01:38] Photography class and filters. The speaker credits a college photography class with inspiring the filters that became part of Instagram. - [01:38 to 02:18] Images, Hurricane Sandy and sharing. The speaker discusses images as an international language and Hurricane Sandy as a pivotal social media moment. - [02:18 to 02:55] Future of collective real-time capture. The speaker predicts the next decade will highlight collective real-time capture and the lasting human need to connect visually. ## Key quotes - [01:47] Co-founder and CEO: "Images can be an international language. You don't have to speak English to understand someone's photo." - [01:54] Co-founder and CEO: "Really pivotal moment for us was Hurricane Sandy." - [02:18] Co-founder and CEO: "The next decade, at least on Instagram, will the be decade where we realize the power of a collective group of people capturing the world in real time through their phones." - [02:28] Co-founder and CEO: "I don't think we quite understand how that will Disrupt industries." ## Questions this video answers - How does Instagram let people see world events in real time? [00:01] - What happened when Instagram launched near midnight Pacific time? [00:24] - How did a college photography class influence Instagram's filters? [00:57] - Why did the founders consider images an international language? [01:47] - What role did Hurricane Sandy play in Instagram's development? [01:54] - What does the CEO predict for the next decade of Instagram? [02:18] ## Content suitability - disasters [01:54-02:05]: Brief reference to Hurricane Sandy and its effect on the United States coast. - war [00:10-00:14]: Brief mention of a protest overseas and the Je suis Charlie march in Paris, presented neutrally.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 2, 2015 8:55 PM UTC Social media celebrity Essena O'Neill has taken herself off social media, calling it a  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 2, 2015 8:55 PM UTC Essena O’Neill announced that despite having more than half a million followers on [Instagram](https://instagram.com/essenaoneill/), 200,000 on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCOT5oNCUGCgyuAVntA8iog) and Tumblr, and 60,000 on Snapchat, she is quitting social media for good. The 18-year-old Australian was living what seemed like a “perfect” life, but she’s taking a stand against the ideals social media presents. On Monday, she posted a YouTube video—her last—explaining her decision after deleting 2,000 Instagram photos last week and renaming her account to “Social Media Is Not Real Life.” She even edited the captions on photos she kept to reflect the truth of what happened “behind” the image. “I’m quitting Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr. Deleted over 2000 photos here today that served no real purpose other than self promotion. Without realising, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance,” she wrote on an [Instagram post](https://instagram.com/p/9VHhoytDXA/?taken-by=essenaoneill) from Oct. 27\. “Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. I was consumed by it.” In the caption of the YouTube video from Monday, O’Neill spoke about how unhappy her social media obsession made her. “I spent hours watching perfect girls online, wishing I was them. Then when I was ‘one of them’ I still wasn’t happy, content or at peace with myself,” she wrote. Now, the teen is launching her own website called [Let’s Be Game Changers](http://www.letsbegamechangers.com) where she hopes to continue to educate people about the destructive nature of trying to gain approval online. “I know you didn’t come into this world just wanting to fit in and get by. You are reading this now because you are a game changer, you might not know your power yet, I am just finding mine, but man… when you do… far out you’ll go crazy. It’ll be brilliant. You’ll be brilliant,” she wrote. ## Transcript [00:01] You can see the world happening in real time through [00:04] instagram and I think that's true whether it's Taylor [00:07] Swift's 1989 tour which trends on instagram all the [00:10] time, or an important moment like a protest over seas, [00:14] or a march like Je suis Charlie, in Paris. [ SOUND ] [00:21] [ MUSIC ] [00:24] When we launched Instragram nearly five years ago [00:27] now, October 6th of 2010, we tapped launched [00:32] Right before midnight, thinking, ok, everyone's asleep. [00:35] But, you know, we were a little naive and we didn't [00:37] realize that midnight Pacific time actually meant that it [00:41] was morning in Europe and midday elsewhere. And, all [00:45] of a sudden, people just started rolling in in droves. [00:47] The stress of keeping servers up was actually Literally [00:51] what kept us up at night. [ MUSIC ] [00:57] When I was a junior in college, I got to take a really [01:00] awesome photography class. And my photography [01:03] teacher the day I arrived, I had this new fancy camera [01:06] with a fancy lens, and he took it away and he said no, [01:09] today you're gonna use this. And it was a Plastic Holga [01:12] camera. And it took pretty blurry photos. They were [01:15] square. And he taught me you could add chemicals to [01:18] the development bath and it would change the tone of [01:20] the actual developed photo. It was just a lesson I just [01:24] applied later when we started creating Instagram. We [01:26] had to create something that incentivized you to take [01:29] photos and filters for it. So I'd say that class really put [01:33] its mark on Instagram in the long run. I [01:38] wanted, and Mike my co- founder wanted to as well, [01:42] create something where we could share what we were [01:44] doing in the moment. Images can be an international [01:47] language. You don't have to speak English to [01:50] understand someone's photo. Really pivotal [01:54] moment for us was Hurricane Sandy. An [01:58] entire coast of the United States came together on [02:02] social media in a way that I don't think you really saw [02:05] before. At the end of the day, there's no better way to [02:08] consume what's happening in the world, other than [02:11] images. And video and I think Instagram's at the [02:14] natural nexus of both of those. The [02:18] next decade, at least on Instagram, will the be decade [02:21] where we realize the power of a collective group of [02:24] people capturing the world in real time through their [02:28] phones. I don't think we quite understand how that will [02:31] Disrupt industries. I hope, in a hundred years, [02:35] that I'll be around to see what people think about [02:39] Instagram. But I know that human nature to connect [02:43] with other people and the human need to [02:46] communicate visually and To see what's happening in [02:48] the world, will never go away. [ MUSIC ] [02:50] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/"},"headline":"Teen Instagram Star Speaks Out About The Ugly Truth Behind Social Media Fame","datePublished":"2015-11-02T20:55:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:39:44.339Z","description":"\"It's perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. 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