Selfie Nation

Selfie Nation

I was on a long flight, seated across the aisle from two ten- or eleven-year-old girls. I imagined their parents were sitting nearby, but the third seat in their row was empty, and they huddled together in the center with the armrests up, giggling.

A few minutes in, they began taking photographs of themselves, a diversion that went on for almost the whole flight. I was slightly jealous; I’d read the in-flight magazine and completed the crossword in less than half an hour and was bored silly. But they weren’t.

They took photos of themselves together and individually. They posed with their hoodies up, then down; their tongues out, then in; their eyes wide, then feigning sleep. After every few photos, they looked at what they’d taken; discarded some, cropped others and added special effects, posted a few to whatever social media they were partial to, and then started all over again. They were completely amused and entertained by their own images.

I remembered traveling in the backseat of my parents’ car when I was ten or eleven. I was glad to have a Weekly Reader, a deck of cards, or a Barbie doll for entertainment. Picture taking was reserved for Christmas or the first day of school or Easter, and someone else always did the honors.

But now camera-assisted self-portraits are the rage. Does that seem a little narcissistic to you? It does to me. How many selfies can one create without beginning to feel an inflated sense of importance? How much posing on one side of the camera does it take to deter lens-free living on the other side? I can’t help thinking how hard it is to observe and enjoy and discover life while you’re cataloging your experience of it for others to see.

We’re a selfie nation, not simply when we take our own picture, but when we put ourselves in the center of our lives. I’m not slamming the exercise—or fun—of an occasional self-portrait. (Hello and thank you, van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo.) I’m simply saying that there’s infinitely more life to be lived looking outward than looking back through the lens at myself. Any world with me at its center is too small.

What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you?

Habakkuk 2:18