The Shoddy Lands and Instagram
I am on Instagram. I suppose a lot of people, maybe even a majority, are. I post pictures of things I see. Lately, I post a lot of pictures of my new puppy. I like pictures of bugs, cityscapes, and anything my kids post. But I am always a bit perturbed by what I see there. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine a vast majority of what is posted there are selfies. It feels as though people no longer go places to see what is there, but rather to show “the world” a picture of them there. And often, when it is people I know, they don’t look like themselves exactly. They use a filter that creates an “uncanny valley” version of themselves. I suppose it is the “ideal” version of them—according to whatever ideal the Instagram reality has imposed.
Instagram didn’t create the world that revolves around “the self.” That worldview has dominated since the Fall. At least it has dominated wherever a culture reaches the carefree, rich, comfort level such as we have attained. Instagram just reinforces it and acts like a steroid, bulking it up.
In 1956, C.S. Lewis had a shorty story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. “The Shoddy Lands” was the story of how he was transported into the headspace of a woman who came to visit Lewis with a former student. That is to say, he suddenly found himself, not in his office, but in another world. In this world, everything from the landscape to trees and people, were all out of focus and undefined. However, at the center of the world, emanating the light in that world, was a giant version of the woman in his office. And yet it was not quite the woman. It was, Lewis could only assume, the woman’s ideal version of herself. It was repulsive.
It would be sexist to claim that this is a female problem. However, it does seem that men express their self-centered-universe problem in other ways. Most of the people I see filtered beyond recognition are the girls of a certain age that I know—the high school and college range. I am so very thankful that my daughter (who is studying digital media communication) is not one of these ladies. She posts infrequently, and usually it is pictures of other people. And she has never filtered herself in a way that I question if a picture is her.
The woman’s world in “The Shoddy Lands” is filled with the sound of knocking. Two voices are trying to gain entrance to her world. The first is her fiancée. The second is Jesus Christ. Both want her to allow her world to be about something other than just herself. People were created for relationship, and it is deathly unhealthy to live in an isolated fantasy of one’s own creation. We need each other to help us distinguish reality from the lies we tell ourselves. Those lies are usually deadly.
More and more today, we see that our culture is enabling and encouraging people to deny reality and live in created fantasy worlds. We no longer help people face reality. In fact, the worst thing you can do to a person today, is to point out to them that the fiction they are telling themselves—a fiction that is wholly unreal and potentially harming them—is false.
We need fewer selfies and more pictures of bugs and architecture.
Instagram didn’t create the world that revolves around “the self.” That worldview has dominated since the Fall. At least it has dominated wherever a culture reaches the carefree, rich, comfort level such as we have attained. Instagram just reinforces it and acts like a steroid, bulking it up.
In 1956, C.S. Lewis had a shorty story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. “The Shoddy Lands” was the story of how he was transported into the headspace of a woman who came to visit Lewis with a former student. That is to say, he suddenly found himself, not in his office, but in another world. In this world, everything from the landscape to trees and people, were all out of focus and undefined. However, at the center of the world, emanating the light in that world, was a giant version of the woman in his office. And yet it was not quite the woman. It was, Lewis could only assume, the woman’s ideal version of herself. It was repulsive.
It would be sexist to claim that this is a female problem. However, it does seem that men express their self-centered-universe problem in other ways. Most of the people I see filtered beyond recognition are the girls of a certain age that I know—the high school and college range. I am so very thankful that my daughter (who is studying digital media communication) is not one of these ladies. She posts infrequently, and usually it is pictures of other people. And she has never filtered herself in a way that I question if a picture is her.
The woman’s world in “The Shoddy Lands” is filled with the sound of knocking. Two voices are trying to gain entrance to her world. The first is her fiancée. The second is Jesus Christ. Both want her to allow her world to be about something other than just herself. People were created for relationship, and it is deathly unhealthy to live in an isolated fantasy of one’s own creation. We need each other to help us distinguish reality from the lies we tell ourselves. Those lies are usually deadly.
More and more today, we see that our culture is enabling and encouraging people to deny reality and live in created fantasy worlds. We no longer help people face reality. In fact, the worst thing you can do to a person today, is to point out to them that the fiction they are telling themselves—a fiction that is wholly unreal and potentially harming them—is false.
We need fewer selfies and more pictures of bugs and architecture.
Comments
Post a Comment