You’ve probably heard the old joke that the last words of many rednecks are “Hey y’all, watch this!” Well, that old joke has been given new life as scores of people around the world have become victims of a new category of accidental deaths: death by selfie.
If you aren’t familiar with the term “selfie,” it’s a photograph you take of yourself to post on social media because you feel like the whole world desperately wants to know where you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing, wearing or eating” (from Crum’s Slightly Cynical Dictionary).
If you take and post lots of selfies, I’m not trying to heap condemnation on you. Maybe dish out a teaspoon or so, but not a heap. I’m more concerned than annoyed because yes, “death by selfie” is a real thing.
There are detailed statistics available now that categorize the many ways we humans are literally dying to get the attention and affirmation of others. Being gored to death by a buffalo and falling into an active geyser are two of the more unusual selfie deaths on record, but here are some others: standing on top of a train (who knew those electric lines overhead are lethal?), trying to jump out of the way of a moving train, posing on the edge of a rocky cliff, playfully holding a loaded gun to one’s head, and frolicking in water (without knowing how to swim).
Nearly 30 people died in 2015 while taking selfies, and heaven only knows how many were injured. I’d guess thousands.
Then there’s also the head lice thing. CNN reported that the selfie craze is directly related to an increase in the number of head lice cases among young people, as teens snuggle up to pose for pictures.
And as if death, injury, and head lice aren’t enough, there’s another danger of the selfie craze that is much more subtle, but perhaps equally troubling: the soul cancer brought on by self-absorption. Our culture may encourage us to focus on ourselves, but God doesn’t. In fact, He calls His followers to something quite the opposite.
“… and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
“And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’” (Luke 9:23)
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
I’m not trying to lay down a Pharisaical no-selfie law or accuse everyone who posts them of being sinfully self-absorbed. (You know the old saying about people who live in glass houses not casting stones.) But I am encouraging those of us who claim to follow Christ to perhaps examine our motives before we mindlessly follow the culture in this trend.
I recently heard a speaker say we’re all building stages to perform on, ladders to climb to worldly success, or benches to share with others to develop meaningful relationships. She encouraged us to invest in benches.
If we’re painfully honest, we don’t usually post selfies to enhance our relationships; we post them to impress others or somehow validate ourselves. Stages and ladders. But the applause or approval we may get never satisfies for long, and the thing about climbing that ladder to success is that it’s almost impossible to reach the top, or to be content if we do happen to get there.
“Death by selfie” can happen suddenly or gradually, physically or spiritually, but it definitely can happen. Maybe we all need to remember that anything preceded by
“Hey y’all, watch this!” … or even “Hey ya’ll, look at me!” … almost never ends well.