Selfie Much?

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 145,978^th 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.