Selfie People, Selfie World

Selfies. Everywhere I look. Some cute, some hideous. The whole selfie craze has become a cultural phenomenon. There are even thousands of websites and Youtube videos dedicated to teaching the art of taking a good selfie.

We are a culture obsessed. Just this morning I googled selfie products and was astounded to find pages upon pages of links and products. Selfie sticks, selfie brushes, selfie shoes, selfie hats, selfie ink pins…and the list keeps going. All products designed to take pictures of the user at any time of the day in the middle of any activity.

My youngest daughter used to have a Barbie guitar that sang this little tune whenever it was played, “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world…” (FYI- Most annoying song on the planet, in my opinion.) Just the other day, I heard my girls giggling as they tried to take the perfect picture together. Callie began singing, changing the words of the old song to, “I’m a selfie girl, in a selfie world…”

The thought stopped me cold. We have become selfie people. It’s all about us.

I’m not saying selfies are wrong. They’re not. They can be fun, humorous and endearing. It’s the mindset behind the obsession with it that disturbs me. We are being taught to focus constantly on ourselves. It reeks of pride and self-absorption. It’s a form of insecurity that screams, “Look at me!”

We have become so desperate for significance that we’re sick with it.

I recently read a life-changing book called Embracing Obscurity. It’s an in-depth look at the pride that lurks in all of our lives, not just with a nonstop stream of selfie photos, but what we talk about, what our motivations are and how we handle our relationships with people. And get this…do you know who it’s written by? Anonymous. The author left himself or herself anonymous.

 

Burdened by the pride God revealed in my own heart, I began scrolling through my Facebook feed to see how much of what I’d posted was actually a cry for significance. Oh, I had posted some funny things my kids had said or threw in a few scriptures. But many of my posts were about my upcoming schedule, my pictures, my book. Me, Me, Me. And I was convicted.

I don’t want to be a selfie type of person. I want to be busy uplifting others, celebrating my friends accomplishments and promoting their good work. I want to be a reflection of Christ. I want to spend my time telling stories what God has done for me…not what I’ve done for myself.

^“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” ~Philippians 2:3-8

We really need to put down our cameras and focus on reflecting Christ. We need to stop insisting the conversation comes back to us and get into others. We need to stop worrying how many ‘likes’ our post about our kids got, or how many times we’ve been retweeted and focus on using our social platform to uplift others. In short, we need to let Jesus fill our significance need.

“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” ~Proverbs 27:2

As children of God, it’s not really about us, is it? It’s all about knowing God, loving Him and pointing others to our Savior. Speaking for myself, I need to do better.

Look through your social media…what do you see?