THE SELFIE ERA OF EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS

www.terrafemina.com

The twentieth century is the selfie era, how empty is that. Simply blaming narcissism, a term overused and misused, doesn't go deep enough. Even people visiting Auschwitz, were taking selfies. It seems that we are at a stage in existence where the place itself matters less than the fact that 'I am here.' It seems no place is sacred when snapping selfies. Not even funerals.

Narcissism is the pursuit of admiration of one's own attributes. It is considered a social or cultural problem, a problem in a person's relationship with self and others, according to Wikipedia.

The myth of Narcissus is one of the most known Greek Myths. Narcissus was once walking by a lake or river and decided to drink some water; he saw his reflection in the water and was surprised by the beauty he saw; he became entranced by the reflection of himself. He could not obtain the object of his desire though, and he died at the banks of the river or lake from his sorrow, not being aware that what he saw was only a reflection and not real.

When we self-love through our reflections, when we need to take selfies to validate our existence, we become increasingly disembodied and submissive, unable to participate fully in the real world. We become unable to have relationships with 'the other' in the world. Without a body, one cannot touch, see, hear or experience any of the senses. To rediscover the real, we must first disenchant ourselves from our reflections, before we like Narcissist, disappear and turn into a nice, ineffective flower as he did, 'Narcissus'.

If we continue to take selfies we will become a society of self-worship and one day we will collapse inward, implode, self-destruct.