The rise of selfies has closely followed the rise of social media, simply because it has become easier than ever to share pictures with all our friends. Ever since, it has become more and more common to see people taking selfies in tourist destinations and in day to day life. Questions like “How can I get a picture of myself with this amazing view so I can show my friends? How many Facebook likes will I get?” are questions many of us ask. Often, we are more interested in getting a good selfie with a beautiful view than in the actual view. This increase has been accompanied by unusual incidents. Some are humorous while some are more serious.

For example, a tourist recently irreversibly damaged an 18th century statue in a Portuguese museum when he accidentally backed into it while posing for a selfie.

On the other hand, some people have even lost their lives when trying to take a selfie from a great height.

Naturally, people have begun to question whether the trend is harmless or if there are negative aspects to taking selfies.

Spiritual impact of taking selfies

When we take a selfie and share it on social media, we think more about ourselves and less about others. Right from the beginning, thoughts such as “what angle will make my face look slimmer?”, “others should know that I am on vacation in Cancun” and “how can I attract the most attention?” tend to be there in the mind of the person. After posting the selfie on social media, more thoughts can be there about whether one’s friends will like it and one may spend time and energy thinking and worrying about it.

If the post gets a lot of likes, one’s pride can increase. On the other hand, if the post is not well received, negative thoughts can increase. Both types of thinking are manifestations of ego. Implementing the personality defect removal and ego removal processes are important steps in our spiritual practice because only by reducing our defects and ego can we can experience God. Since taking selfies increases our defects and ego instead, it can create obstacles to the personality defect removal and ego removal processes.

In addition, taking selfies further attaches us to our 5 senses, mind and intellect and takes us away from the aim of our birth, which is to experience the Soul or God within us.

Finally, since taking selfies increases our defects and ego, it can make us more susceptible to attacks from negative energies (please refer to our section on ghosts for more information).