Appearance

ByHal Hammons

I think I’ve finally figured out what bugs me about selfies on social media.  It’s that attention is being drawn, almost exclusively, to the outward appearance.  Sometimes it’s our accomplishments, sometime it’s our misfortune, sometimes it’s our surroundings.  But usually it’s just our looks.  A new haircut, a cute expression — worse yet, the infamous “Which do you like better?” post, which literally begs for audience participation.  All of this is a 21st Century way of saying, “Look at me!  Look at me!”

Selfies

ByHal Hammons

I am channeling Jude today.  The epistler famously wrote of feeling “the necessity” to write how his readers should “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3).  His plan had been to write regarding their “common salvation.”  Similarly, though not by inspiration, I was feeling the urge to write regarding the strange compulsion toward selfies in our culture (a less noble topic, granted).  But amidst my angst, I think I may have found some sympathy.  And I find myself writing something quite different from what I had planned.