Who cares about public opinion when you have God to worry about? I wrote this post at 4am in the morning and had the weirdest idea to google “what God thinks of selfies”. Interestingly, I found numerous articles on the topic, but for purposes of brevity, I will be referring to this one- http://students.opwest.org/blog/articles/2014/04/christian-selfies

The article first establishes the Christian method of questioning to all standards of behavior: “Is this a good thing? How does this affect me? What impact would it have on others?” The article also mentions that part of the “normal, ascetic life of a Christian is to be aware of, and reflect on the motives that prompt our actions”. Saint Catherine of Siena is also quoted as saying that we must dwell “in the cell of self-knowledge in order to better know God’s goodness”.

In view of this, it appears that Christians ought to abstain from taking selfies those who take them (and worse, post them) are interpreted as being narcissistic and completely lacking in self-awareness. The article elaborates by mentioning vanity as detracting from our humility and focus on God, and developing pride that challenges a willingness to serve God. It was also funny to me that they were enraged to discover that the word “selfie” had made it into the Oxford dictionary in 2013. Rather than just a social taboo, it is interesting to consider how such a seemingly harmless modern phenomenon might conflict with traditional religious teachings.

On a separate note, I was surprised that the selfie stick did not come up in this week’s readings. Given the negative hype that surrounds people who take selfies and post selfies, it would seem even more outrageous that a product was manufactured for the specific purpose of facilitating an activity and behavior that is shrouded in such negativity. On a broader scale, it is interesting to note how products are manufactured to suit our changing and evolving needs, and that products with a single use/ purpose are becoming increasingly popular.

On a recent trip to Disneyland, I noticed many couples and even families carrying selfie sticks. Thinking about my own practice of selfie taking, I take selfies when there isn’t anyone to take a photo for me, but I still want the moment to be captured. In a similar fashion, I imagine couples and families prefer to take their own photos, rather than have someone else take them (I always think asking is a little bit awkward and people surprise me with how bad of a photograph they manage to take). Combined with flip camera technology, it just seems a lot easier to get a sense of what your face looks like on camera before actually taking a picture, thereby eliminating terrible things like ugly drivers’ license photos. Vanity or not, I think our desire to look our best (if not better) is what drives such “self-photography”.