The attached is a photo of a piece of wheatpaste graffiti entitled “Nobody Likes Me”. It was created by Canadian artist iHeart and posted in Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada. It illustrates a young boy’s dismay over the lack of social media recognition he is receiving. Although I am usually wary of the overdone artistic commentary of how social media is disrupting human interaction and affecting our desires and priorities, I think it is a fantastic showcase of human nature in the context of a digital age. To be human is to be shaped by our underlying desires. These desires are driven by our own personal interpretation of our fate, and how we fit into the world. The human desire for validation on this Earth is apparent in this piece of art. How we express this desire is therefore shaped by our cultural contexts, experiences, and how we view the world.

Rivera would interpret our desires to be shaped by her postmodern view of the world. When all of the traditional structures that uphold our lives are gone, what are we left with? To Rivera, this would be our physical, material presence (Rivera, 58). Living in a digital age where myself and others feel oddly validated by the amount of likes on a post, or the number of followers on social media, this constructed moral order of online presence shapes how we see our bodies in the world. In other words, our bodies become constructed by these ideas, or ‘imaginaries’.

In the context of the Christian tradition, she uses John and Paul to illustrate how these affect humans as a whole. On one hand, in the Johnian perspective, metaphors like breaking bread through the rituals associated with communion are used to present humans as inherently social creatures (Rivera, 25). In a more concrete example, we all have the shared experience of prenatal development.

We desire to be both connected to one another and to affirm our relevancy in our lives before death. This would explain our desire for validation on social media, and our gravitation towards social media in general. The Pauline perspective almost criminalizes the body in the sense that it is a burden keeping us from the divine, and that true social unity comes from our shedding of the flesh when we are reborn after our death on Earth (Rivera, 20).

While I agree with John’s interpretation more than Paul’s, they are linked through their understanding that humans are social creatures by nature. This goes back to the first level of interpreting this piece as being about human desire to be social and validated. Validation is just one of the underlying human desires shaped by our cultural contexts. “The accumulating effects of meeting eyes that react with love and respect to my presence, hearing words of approval, being surrounded by images that represent my body as beautiful are also part of the materialization of flesh” (Rivera, 148). Rivera would relate this to the residual effects of colonialism in terms of how those in formerly colonized areas view their own bodies in the context of European beauty standards. The evaluative gaze of a corporeal schema can have tremendous effects on how one views their own existence within the world, having lasting effects on what they value and choose to give validation to.

Cone would agree with the issues of validation and how these issues relate to human existence. He states, “It is clear to blacks why they are unwanted in society, and for years they tried to make themselves acceptable by playing the game of human existence according to white rules, hoping that someday whites would not regard the color of their skins as the ultimate or only criterion for human relationships” (Cone, 15).

I would argue the corporeal schema of black bodies is not solely a result of the evaluative gaze of whites, as Cone would suggest, but is sustained through the evaluative gaze of other people of color, including blacks. For a long time within the black community, validation came from having lighter skin and looser curl patterns, almost to the point of fetishization. But that does not mean that these aspects, when associated with the idea of blackness are valued. To Cone, God is with those who are oppressed and undervalued (Cone, 91).

He uses the Bible, as a black theologian, as a way to affirm blackness, or the idea of being black and the self-determination that affirmation entails. When God took the human form in the body of Jesus Christ, he did not assume the life of a worldly king, but that of the son of a carpenter, not very remarkable for the time or location. He surrounded himself with the marginalized and otherwise invalidated by society.

Because of this, Cone understands God as being a foundational force that sides with the oppressed to aid in worldly struggles. A critique Cone would have of theology is the way it tries to be inclusive by being universal, and in doing so, succeeds in being too general to apply to the lives and experiences of marginalized groups. The only way to do theology without overlooking these groups is to interpret the Bible as a liberation text, using passages such as the Exodus story as proof of God as a God who frees (Cone, 91).

The key to self-determination and liberation is not the black individual, but rather the black community. In order to receive salvation on Earth, as Cone would suggest, you need to be part of this community (alluding to the idea of humans as social creatures). In order for non-blacks, more specifically whites, to become part of this community, they must abandon their “whiteness” and the unintentioned power, privilege, and the normalization of their existence it entails. (Cone, 103). This intrinsic human need for validation is seen on a large scale through what we choose to include and omit in the narrative of the United States outlined in history books to justify some of the country’s darkest moments. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a classmate as a fifteen-year-old reading Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. A friend of mine suggested that slavery was so widespread in society that people weren’t aware of slavery’s nature, and that we may one day find out dogs have feelings and souls as well. I knew that in some back-handed way, my family and I were being compared to dogs, but I was also fifteen and unaware on how to defend my identity.

The innate desire for humans to feel validated in terms of both physical beauty and character can and will continue to be at the cost of others’ existence. Certain physical features are valued in our society, and people will go out of their way to achieve this through plastic surgery. These types of enhancements, possible through modern technology, serve as clear examples of what Lutheran philosopher Gilbert Meilaender would argue are the dangers of science and technology, as they also open up debate for human augmentation and enhancement to the point of discussing whether or not humans should die(Meilaender, 6).

Earlier, I stated my belief that humans all have desires that are determined and shaped by their experiences. One common experience is the reality of our shared mortality. It drives us to set goals, visit certain places, try new things, and seek an altogether more fulfilling life because we know our time within our existence as we know it is limited. This limited time is also why I feel we seek validation so fervently, not only on social media, but in our relationships with others and our accomplishments as people. In our context, there are certain milestones that humans are expected to reach - Learn to walk, learn to drive, graduate high school, pursue a vocation or go to college to earn money to support the spouse and children you will accrue before 40 years of age.

I would agree with Meilaender in his ideas that immortality would not bring you a fulfilling life, but I disagree with this idea that immortality brings restlessness (63). I would say that immortality on an individual level would bring a boring and uninspired existence to humans who are immortal in our very mortality-driven context. Immortality applied to humans as a whole would warrant extreme change to what we value with our unlimited time. Oftentimes, death keeps us conscious of the way we present ourselves in the world, from what we say, to how we dress, to whom we spend our short amount of time with. Oddly enough, the scientific desire to evade mortality stems from the same feelings of anxiety that our looming deaths bring (Meilaender, 28).

While most humans are not at the forefront of scientific research to find the fountain of youth, this desire for immortality still manifests itself in the form of our online presence. Whether or not we’re conscious of it, we are immortalizing ourselves. Meilaender claims we understand and make sense of ourselves through the narratives of our past, present, and future. We want people to remember us through the reputations and narratives we create for ourselves. Some people do this through their actions and the people they associate themselves with, and others do this through their postings on social media, where it is easier to portray a certain angle of yourself. In doing this, we unconsciously crave the validation the likes, comments, and follows give us. This desire for physical immortality is not explicitly stated, but rather alluded to in Meilaender’s interpretation on generativity, or the desire to bring forth and guide the next generation (Meilaender, 58). We do this because we want to have control over the future of the world we currently inherit, but soon will not. Although Meilaender believes humans will never achieve the rest (which I interpret as peace of mind in relation to our own mortality) they desire until they become immortal, this generational dynamic is needed to sustain a cycle of virtue to share God in an impactful way.

For example, Meilaender believes that humans are reproductive creatures to share God in an impactful way. This desire, for Meilaender, is from our desire for “rest”, or peace of mind. I believe Caputo would interpret Meileander’s generativity, or the loving and optimistic intentions behind it, to be an example of God in and of itself (Caputo, 5). I do think they would disagree in terms of where our desires for these actions come from. For Caputo, human action and existence in the world stems from the extrinsic desire for peace and justice, rather than an intrinsic need for “rest”, as Meilaender would say.

If interpreting this piece of art on a very superficial level, the subject would not be considered religious by Caputo. Although the boy has a desire for social media validation, there is no evidence he is dismayed because he is passionate about the positive effect his social media content can have on his audience, if he had one. The subject’s desires stem from self-validation, not from the pleasure he receives from bringing positivity and love into the world (Caputo, 92). I do think, however, Caputo would appreciate what this piece of art tells us about human existence according to his phenomenology, or the act of studying what already exists in the world to understand human existence, rather than asking questions that can’t be answered in a postmodern context.

It shows much of what I’ve already touched upon in terms of human desire being shaped by our contexts, in this case being the context of social media, and the desire for validation in that particular context. On a deeper level,the boy is partaking in religion without his own awareness, further supporting Caputo’s belief that all humans are religious creatures because we all have passions and questions that stem from these passions. Some people, according to Caputo, ignore these questions and therefore are not fully religious. In my opinion, I think Caputo would argue the subject to be unintentionally religious because they are partaking in the highest form of love, the impossible, or the transformative relationship between God and humans (it being transformative because humans become part of God’s divine nature after death through the transformation from matter to spirit). Caputo believes the digital age is making this matter vs. spirit duality obsolete (Caputo, 77). The subject is also showcasing his passion for the unknown, his desire for validation for the sake of filling a gap in his own image he feels is missing. The inability for these passions to be legitimized through the engagement of his social media audience showcases the “passion of not knowing, truth without Knowledge, the restless heart” (Caputo, 127).

Overall, religion is a very individualistic thing. Our constant need to feel validated is explored and interpreted in many ways through these four thinkers. The dismay shown on the boy’s face clearly illustrates the frustration, restlessness, and unhappiness that stems from unresolved questions we pose in our mortal context. These desires, and all the frustration, satisfaction, restlessness, stress, and happiness they bring shape our existence as humans and our interpretation of the world.