The Selfie Generation - Jemima Varughese
There is no doubt that social media has made a huge impact on our culture today. It has changed the way we see people; it helps us to remember events and, in some cases, it changes how we perceive ourselves.
I am a Gen X child, so I often laugh as I imagine how my high school friends would have reacted if I had printed a picture of myself posing with an abstract comment attached and posted it all over our lockers, telephone poles, school cafeterias, school halls and bulletin boards for all to see and comment. In fact, I distinctly remember my university friends and I having a laughing fit at a lady who had giant glamorous pictures of herself posted everywhere in her house.
Oh how we have come a long way since then… now it’s not uncommon to scroll through an Instagram feed and see endless pictures of people posing to the social media world in an attempt to show a picture of their life, and to get perhaps an approval, comment or ‘like’.
I saw a psychotherapist on Fox news the other week being interviewed, and they were saying that the increasing obsession of taking selfies has now become an addiction called ‘Selfitis’. She stated that it’s rooted from insecurities and the need to be liked. The biggest demographic to be hit with this new found disease is females who are aged between 18-25 years old. I felt so sad to hear this. Our up and coming world changers are being sucked into a disease that might not physically kill you, but will emotionally.
Please hear my heart. I am not against snapping some pictures to capture moments and to keep friends or family updated on your life, or even for memories and history. The original purpose of Instagram and Facebook was just that - instantly captured memories of what you were doing at that very moment. Now we filter, cut, Photoshop and post pictures with the best angles - to not show people what we are doing at that moment, but to show people how good we look, how perfect our life is or we just want the world to have a look at how cute our outfit is...
Some of you reading this may be highly offended right now. Please hear me out; my heart is not to judge you, but to just raise the question - what’s your motive when you post a picture of yourself? To show people how great you are? To give the Lord glory? To witness?
It’s time we take a good look at our motives before posting and really search our heart.
Do I just want to feed my insecurity to be liked? I personally am constantly checking my motives before I post a picture.
When confronted with new platforms that impact our culture, I go to the Word of God. What would Jesus say if he was in this technological driven ‘selfie’ era on earth?
… so that those who live should no longer live self-absorbed lives but lives that are poured out for him—the one who died for us and now lives again.” 2 Corinthians 5:15 (TPT)
Jesus did the exact opposite to selfishness, he died selflessly for a world that not yet loved or ‘liked’ him. That selfless drive in Him should cascade down to us. Philippians 2:4 says;
“Abandon every display of selfishness. Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests.” Philippians 2:4 (TPT)
Abandon every display of selfishness - wow. That’s a great question to ask yourself before you click that upload button... is this displaying my selfishness? My ‘selfie’ self?
“God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance. Instead, honestly assess your worth by using your God-given faith as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with an appropriate self-esteem.” Romans 12:3 (TPT)
I love this verse in Romans 12, especially this part ‘assess your worth by using your God-given Faith as the standard of measurement…’ God loves us and thinks we are worth it to have given up his Son, therefore let’s make Him proud by displaying His glory in our lives, not our glory in our lives.
“Be free from pride-filled opinions, for they will only harm your cherished unity. Don’t allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts, but in authentic humility put others first and view others as more important than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3 (TPT)
What a great reminder, just as Jesus put us first and was not into self-promotion, so we should put others first…
It’s the selfless culture God will use for revival on this earth, not the selfie culture.
Paul writes to Timothy and warns him about the culture of the last days,
“People will be self-centered lovers of themselves…” It was like Paul saw a vision of the social media world and described it as ‘self-centre lovers’… 2 Timothy 3:2 (TPT)
Note the term ‘selfie’ comes from ‘self’. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of technology and the social media world. If you ask our social media team, they will tell you how passionate I am about using it.
However, I see social media as an incredible tool to capture God’s work, display God’s miracles, preach God’s word, prophesy, minister and just boast on who our God is. It's free, it has no limits to distance or time. What an incredible tool to get the gospel out there faster to the ends of the earth!
I believe the enemy knows this so he has distracted us with us. Instead of seeing what I believe is the best invention since the printing press that got the word of God into the hands of the common people, now we can broadcast the word of God to millions without leaving home. Now that is REVIVAL!
Let’s not get caught up in the ‘selfie’ culture but get caught up in the ‘selfless’ culture that uses these amazing platforms to shout His praises louder, faster and further.
Written by Jemima Varughese
Jemima is married to Mark and leads Kingdomcity Communications Ltd. They have two sons, Zeke and Caleb.