ˈselfē/
noun
informal
noun: selfie;
plural noun: selfies; noun: selfy
A photograph that one
has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and
uploaded to a social media website.
The selfie craze can hardly be
considered new, and yet, this weekend, it hit an all-time low for me. And by “low” I actually mean, “I almost pulled the “mom card” and went up
to random
students at
a concert and told them to put their phone away because every person around
them was contemplating how to best punch each of them in the face while
simultaneously breaking their phones.”
(I
thought “low” sounded better for the blog.)
Here’s the context:
My husband bought tickets to the
Needtobreathe concert (SO incredible!) and so we, like the rest of normal technology-savvy
adults, arrived at the venue and took our selfie of the night (to the right) and then put our
phones away. I tell you that so you can understand, I take selfies. I enjoy
selfies. I am a somewhat-normal selfie-er.
BUT then along came the students.
About ¾ of the way through the concert, the group of 10 high school students
standing near us, evidently decided that the money that they paid for attending and listening to an incredible band
was better
served by taking selfies. Then deleting the
selfies because they didn’t look perfect. And re-taking them. Then deleting the
re-takes because a boy in their group photo-bombed the re-takes, and taking
another one. And so forth, and so forth and so forth.
I get it; they want to document the
night. But do they need to document the night in the same pose or one rotated
left by 3 degrees 14 times over?!? AND
do they need to document the night in the middle of the concert when the lead singer is being surprisingly
transparent about a difficult family situation that caused heartache, and going on to perform the song as an acoustic set with no house lights on and 2 simple spotlights on him on stage.
So put yourself in my shoes, here I am
trying to soak in the moment of that song when
FLASH. The blinding light from the iPhone camera cracked through
the air. Followed by another one.
And another one. Then repeated
another 9 times.
Beautiful moment OVER.
Gone.
Disappeared.
So to the selfie loving takers... Please,
please consider these three simple questions when holding up your phone to
capture your brilliant smile for the 145,978th time on Instagram.
1. Where
am I?
If you are in a public setting that might
involve other people paying attention to an event, a speaker, or a singer,
selfies could possibly be considered distracting or disrespectful.
I know. Who would have thought you holding a
phone above your head so it blocks the view of the person behind you could be
considered distracting?!?! Some people are so high maintenance.
2. Is it
dark in here?
If the room that you are blessing with
your presence is dark (possibly even for a reason), then you might need to wait
on selfie-ing with a flash. Again, selfies
could
possibly be considered distracting or disrespectful.
I know. Why can’t the people just
ignore the flash and keep looking toward the stage? It’s not like you’re asking
them to take the picture. Why do they people have to be so demanding?!
3. What
number is this?
If you have an all-clear after the
first two questions, still keep count of how many selfies have been stored in
that phone of yours. Because after
taking 14 selfie shots and 5 practice shots in one setting, once again, selfies could possibly be considered
distracting or disrespectful.
I know. Why don’t people understand
that perfection takes patience and repeated poses? It’s not like they’re the
ones having to pick the best one and THEN figure out the best filter to
apply. Why can’t people understand the
process to perfection?!?!
As my husband and I left the concert,
he mentioned something that stuck with me. He said, “It’s not even that those
kids were taking the pictures. It’s that they didn’t even realize there were
other people in the room; much less that the musician was trying to provide a
beautiful moment for the audience. They were completely self-absorbed with
themselves in the moment.”
And honestly, that’s the reality
behind the post. As
I grow older, I see students missing out on so many of the beautiful moments
floating past them because they are so busy attempting to freeze the pose in
front of them. Sometimes it’s better to
look into people’s eyes then into a camera’s flash. You might be surprised at what you’re
missing. Memories
can exist without a camera roll.
