Vanity disguised as compassion

In which we ask ourselves, are we guilty of taking selfies for social causes in order to garner more likes?

MANILA, Philippines - There’s nothing inherently wrong with taking a selfie. I find it strange that the media have managed to transform the selfie into the go-to symptom of the Millennial generation, considering how people have been taking pictures of themselves ever since the camera was invented. We’ve been taking vanity shots with crappier camera phones, posting our grainy unfiltered profiles on Multiply and Friendster even before the term selfie was invented. If you’re the type to insist that poorly taken vanity shots are a strictly Generation Y thing, fine. We’re vain. Moving on.

Not long after the term was coined, people started dissecting the phenomenon, often by condemning various selfie crimes: the fitness selfie, the bedhead selfie, couple selfie. The fitness selfie hardly deserves the flak it gets; more power to you and your love for your body and your comically large jar of whey in the background. The bedhead selfie is less a plea for attention and more an obnoxious way of saying “Good morning, fellow beautiful people of the world!” And as for the couple selfie? There are worse forms of PDA. (Though God help you if you call your couple pictures “we-fies.” What the hell is a we-fie? We-fie sounds like a small, sad waffle.) What I find more problematic is the social cause selfie.

Some time last year, Preview magazine came out with an issue with Anne Curtis on the cover, hiding her face (or, well, her eyes — you could still see her lips and her collarbones and her carefully groomed hair) behind a card with the statement “SUPPORT A CAUSE. #unselfie” I think the intention of the cover and the article behind it was to turn the selfie trend on its head — to take an act normally associated with vanity and give it a twist of selflessness. According to Pauline Suaco-Juan, editor-in-chief of Preview:

“#Unselfie is a global digital project meant to raise awareness in the wake of Super Typhoon Yolanda. Photographs of covered faces with helpful links began to dominate the world of Instagram and Twitter. We join the rest of the world as we try to raise more awareness and more funds to help rehabilitate people and livelihoods all across the Yolanda-stricken areas by supporting the #unselfie movement.”

I couldn’t help but admire Preview magazine’s attempt to subvert the selfie trend. I can only imagine the thought process behind the project. Let’s take Generation Y’s supposed vanity habit and use it as an instrument to support greater things. But when a campaign for charity opts to use the selfie as a tool to bring about change, there’s the risk of meaningless bandwagoning.

This isn’t so much a diss against the social cause selfie, but there is a risk that comes with inviting other people to take pictures of themselves to support a charity effort. Some people mean well. Others use the social cause selfie to ride the crest of the compassion wave to garner more likes, to indicate that they’re on that bandwagon, that they’re on that trend, that they’re morally decent by sharing the appropriate content on their social media, thinking they can get away with coming off as kind and charitable by putting on a convincing virtual front without actually helping anybody. Whether or not you cover your face with a card that says “SUPPORT A CAUSE. #unselfie” hardly makes a difference. You still make it a point to emphasize that it’s you, it’s your face.

But then, if that’s the case, then the problem is intention and not so much the photo itself. As long as awareness is being raised and helpful links are being spread on everyone else’s feeds does it matter whether you social selfie out of genuine compassion or vanity? It kind of does. Why let the main subject of the photo be you? Why not cite a photo from a news publication that shows the wake of a natural disaster, or families navigating through the rubble of what used to be their home?

Let me put it this way. Let’s say a government official takes the time to fix a bunch of potholes. All well and good. That is, until you find yourself in traffic next to a truck with a poster too large for its own good plastered on its side with the name and face of said government official, screaming “Hey! I fixed these potholes! I am the champion pothole fixer of this city and everyone should know this. Vote for me. Hashtag no potholes 2014!!!”

Whether it’s a #selfie or an #unselfie being used to support a cause, the hashtag loses power when it’s used as an excuse to paint yourself as a moral citizen instead of genuinely bringing attention to a given issue. This is why I find it easier to condone the fitness selfie and all other selfie crimes. What you see is what you get. You know right away that it’s vanity. There’s no pretense. But vanity disguised as compassion is another level of pseudo-righteous bullsh*t. As a popular adage goes, don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.