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Now, it’s a very different world. If you see a lion, you need to get your face AND the hairy beast in the picture. If you’re at the football there are three key photographic components: the pitch, the players and your own daft face. Ladies and gentlemen, the plague on modern photography: the selfie.
The humble photo of oneself has a long and varied history, but really took off during the MySpace boom of the mid-2000s when photos taken at bizarre angles with an arm in shot were ‘de jour’. It’s weird isn’t it? We’ve got this whole world to look at and we’re too busy gawping into our own cameras – is this what humanity has become? The most technologically advanced society in the history of the planet and we’re using all that innovation to check out our fringes.
• What do you think of selfies?
• Do you take many of them?
• Why do you think we take so many of them?
• Does it say something about us as a society?
Some might argue that the rise of the selfie is indicative of wider problems within our society – as if people taking photos of themselves reflects the epidemic of self-interest that seems to plague our 21st Century existence. On the other side of the coin, it’s just a bit of fun, a way for people to show they were present with people and at places and events. Do we just need to get over ourselves a bit?
• Does our society focus on ourselves more than others?
• Is that a good thing?
• What can we do about it?
The Church is called to be different to society, and one way it can do that is by caring more about others than ourselves. William Temple once said, ‘The Church is the only organisation that does not exist for itself, but for those who live outside of it.’ We see this backed up in the Bible; the early Jewish community was called to be different and to bless the rest of the world through who they were. Read Genesis 12:2-3:
• What do you think this passage is talking about?
• It’s often surmised as ‘blessed to be a blessing’. What do you think that means?
• Do you think the Church lives up to William Temple’s quote?
• What does it need to do better?
• What can you do in the next week to put others first?
