Approximately a week ago, another selfie made international news; this time, however, the picture was directly related to global affairs. During the Miss Universe pageant, Miss Israel posted a picture on Instagram of her and three other contestants: Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia, and Miss Lebanon. Immediately after the image was posted, sources from Lebanon heavily criticized both Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon for taking a picture together, since the countries of Lebanon and Israel are enemy nations. Some Lebanese people asked for Miss Lebanon to be disqualified from the competition. Miss Lebanon was quoted saying that she did not mean to be in the selfie with Miss Israel; she just came up and took the picture of everyone together. Other people were upset with Miss Israel, saying that she should pay more attention to current events and know that this was inappropriate.
After this image blew up in the news, Miss Israel talked to a representative about how it made her sad that there was still hostility even though she felt as though this was just a place to meet many girls from different cultures in an once in lifetime experience. Both Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon's nationalities affected how they were able to represent themselves in the online community. Even though they could be friends in person, putting this image on social media not only jeopardized their chances in the Miss Universe competition, but also ignited more sparks between the two enemy nations.
This is all representative of the growing power of selfies and social media, especially when it comes to celebrities. The pictures that they post may have a wider sphere of influence then they could have imagined, especially when it comes to something as trivial as a fun group selfie.
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