The Peril of a Self-Focused Lens

A recent review by the University of New South Wales in Australia calls attention to the danger of … taking selfies.

The review, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, surveyed multiple studies in the U.S. and Australia of incidents in which people were injured or killed while taking pictures of themselves with their smartphones. The two most common causes: falling from heights and drowning. Some scenic locations have even implemented “no selfie zones,” physical barriers, signs, and social media warnings in hopes of preventing such accidents. The review concludes that the danger is sufficient to be considered a “public health problem.”

Spiritually, too, it’s unhealthy and dangerous to be too focused on self.

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). The point is not denying myself this thing or that, but denying myself — the decision “to obliterate self as the dominant principle of life and to make God the ruling principle” (William Barclay).

Paul warns, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). For the perfect example of this attitude, he points us to Jesus, who “emptied himself” and went to the cross for our salvation (verses 5-8).

As with your smartphone camera, it’s about which view you choose: self-facing or outward-facing. Kenneth Chumbley wrote, “To live selfishly is to lose life in the best and fullest sense, but to count all but loss for Christ’s sake and put the service of God and others before all else is to live fully and abundantly” (The Gospel of Matthew 306). We serve Jesus, who “died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

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