Selfies as Secular Religion: Transcending the Self

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Authors

Nygaard, Mathias Ephraim

Issue Date

2019

Type

Journal Article

Language

Keywords

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

Alternative Title

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary selfie-practice sometimes display patterns that have otherwise been associated with religion. Selfies manifesting ideals, or with a more crude description bragging-selfies, can be shown to deliver transcendence to users of social media. These representations transcend the object, the corporeal and temporal, and for those entering wholly into their frame of reference, also the self. In a situation of competition for likes, selfie-takers end up providing the gaze of the other themselves, resulting in a self-creating subject. These selfies can be understood as ideal icons, which the selfie-practitioner is the first to desire and consume.|Keywords: selfie, religion, secular, consumption, deification

Description

Citation

Publisher

Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

License

The journal is open-access and freely allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all published material for personal or academic purposes.

Journal

Volume

Issue

PubMed ID

DOI

ISSN

1522-5658

EISSN