Selfies as Secular Religion: Transcending the Self

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