Selflessness in the age of selfies

What young people can teach us about social media’s throw-away culture

di Filipe Domingues

"Chiesa e Società" 6

2021, pp. 192

How does social media promote the throw-away culture and what impact does it have on young people and society on the whole? In this book, Dr. Filipe Domingues discusses how social media both feeds and is driven by the throw-away culture — a concept popularized by Pope Francis — and how online activity impacts the moral and psychosocial concerns of young people today. Domingues uses contemporary media theory to identify the root problems of the throw-away culture and how they are manifest in the media. Based on survey of hundreds of young people of faith and of no faith, conducted for the 2018 Synod of Bishops on Youth, Domingues presents insights into young people’s understanding and criticism of social media, as well as their concerns about the morality of life online. In this new space, dominated by the ethics of the throw-away culture, Domingues proposes a new ethic — media solidarity — as the way to embrace “selflessness in the age of selfies.”