Essena O’Neill has gaged a war on social media.

In the process of her goal to empower women and out the frauds of social media acceptance through “likes," she’s overgeneralized some aspects of the “Insta-famous” community and angered some people. Through her new campaign, “Let's Be Game Changer," she’s trying to expose all of the deception that we see through famous social network accounts, and make people realize that even some of the people who seem to have it all, are still not happy. O’Neill has lived what seems to be a beautiful, happy life, but she’s telling us that her Instagram was not a clear depiction of the truth. She was constantly searching for others approval and aiming to be the media’s idea of “perfect” while deep inside never feeling good enough until she took the perfect picture after 70 tries or got a certain amount of likes.

While I believe O’Neill’s goal to save herself (and others) from constantly needing the approval of others through social media and show people how much deception is out there in the world of media was noble, she may not be going about it the right way by generalizing social media users as one set stereotype.

Social media is only a lie if you make it that way.

While I’m sure Essena is right and a lot of social media stars are not as happy or perfect as they might portray, Essena is proving that these beautiful people we follow for inspiration have flaws too, we all do. That's important. If you believe that these images you're shown on famous social media accounts are all perfect all the time, you're wrong. All in all, social media is whatever you make it and take from it.

I’m here to give props to Essena for showing her flaws and props to the people who are voicing their responses to her, whether they’re positive or negative. We are living in a world based off the constant gratification, and acceptance from others and we need to stop. Conversations, debates, and movements like this are good for us. We don’t communicate anymore and a lot of us have issues with acceptance and self-worth and technology has a huge role in that. I believe Essena is helping people by exposing some of these issues in social media, and it’s only going to create a rippling affect if people are smart, which it seems some are.

Although there have been many negative responses to Essena from her fellow Insta-famous models, this one article is the perfect balanced response.

Lauren Giraldo is another Instagram famous model. To summarize her letter, she is happy for Essena who is changing the way she used social media, but she is also here to tell us that not everyone who uses social media is depicting false lifestyles. Social media can be a great thing for your life or a horrible thing; the choice is ultimately up to you. If you’re confident in yourself, like Lauren, and enjoy what you do, then you wont be falsifying anything. You wont care about the number underneath your selfies because social media will be a highlight reel of your life and you won’t let it consume you. If you’re like Essena was and are very worried about what people think because you don’t have enough self worth, you will let social media consume you in a negative way. I’m here to say, no matter who you are, you’re beautiful and the only one who needs to believe that is you.

I recently posted a quote that resonated well with me, I got 38 likes on it. I also posted a selfie because I felt confident one day, I got 207 likes on it. Does that mean I should delete the quote that I posted, because not enough people agree with it or enjoy it? No. Does that mean that my selfie is more important to my Instagram? No. It can mean any number of things; maybe those 207 people just weren’t on social media when I posted the quote, maybe people don’t care about the quote that I care about, or maybe people are just more inclined to like a visual photo of someone rather than their thoughts.

Whatever the reasoning is, it shouldn't matter to you. I’ve had times where I’ve deleted old posts because it didn't get the average amount of likes I usually got, because an ex was in them or because I just wasn't sure anymore if it was beneficial to my Instagram’s "overall image." I did this until recently, until I got to this point in my life where I no longer care what anyone thinks. I’ve become confident in myself and I decided that I will not let things like social media or others opinions affect me anymore. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. The truth is, out of those 207 likes, I probably talk to about ten of them on a regular basis so why would I care so much anyway?

Your social networks are for your benefit. They’re for you to look back on memories and share the special moments in your life. If that includes a horrible quality photo from one of your favorite nights that won’t get any likes, post it anyway. If you want to post a quote that’s really important to you at that time that you know people might even judge you for, post it anyway. I’m not going to delete anything on my Instagram ever again because everything that I post means something to me and it doesn’t matter if it means something to anyone else.

It doesn’t matter if a year from now you have a completely different life or mindset that doesn’t match your past posts. Everything that you do in your life shapes you as a human being. Those posts you make on social media shouldn’t be determined valid based on anyone but yourself. This all goes so much deeper than self worth and social acceptance. Social media ruins more than your self-esteem if you let it. It can ultimately boil over into every aspect of your life, relationships, jobs, friendships etc. You have to use your power in social media for the good, don't look at life as a competition with your followers or following, be yourself and surround yourself with people who appreciate you for what you truly are.

If you’re someone who realizes that you check social media too often, tries to portray your life the way you think it should be rather than how it is, worries about likes, or just aren’t happy with yourself because you compare yourself to pages that you follow. Essena -- and I -- challenge you to take some time away from social media, see how that affects your mind. We are very lucky to have some of the technological advances that we do, but we must use those moderately and accurately in order to reap the benefits. Likes don’t determine your worth and a photo doesn’t depict your whole life. Enjoy the people, places, and things that surround you and love yourself or no one else will.