Obama is back, baby, and oh boy did he have a lot to say about selfies and social media.
The beloved 44th president of the United States and hip AF dad stopped by the University of Chicago on Monday afternoon to a.) torture us by asking, "what's been going on while I've been gone?" and b.) deliver his first major public speech since leaving office in January.
Obama spoke about many important matters ranging from his political career to the future of America's youth, but then, near the end of his talk the former POTUS unexpectedly dropped some knowledge on the art of selfie-taking.
After a panel member asked Obama to share his perspective on failure and the impact everlasting social media posts have on young people, America's overprotective father replied with a selfie warning.
"In terms of how to deal with the fact that as you grow up you’re going to learn and change and evolve in all kinds of ways ... the problem now with the internet is that that past is always there," Obama said. "One way to think about it is just to own it."
"If we had pictures of everything I’ve done when I was in high school I probably wouldn't have been President of the United States," he joked, "so I would advise all of you to be a little more circumspect about your selfies and what you take pictures of."
Awwwwwwwww, he really cares!
However, selfies weren't the only thing about phones that Obama mentioned.
Once again, he touched on his fear that technology and social media help confine us to our own personal bubbles. "If this generation is getting all its information from phones, you really don’t have to confront people who have different opinions or a different experience or outlook," he said earlier in his speech. "If you’re liberal you’re on MSNBC, you’re reading The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times or whatever your choices are — or maybe you’re just looking at cat videos, which is fine," he laughed.
Despite his of weariness of selfies and social media, Obama assured everyone he straight up LOVES young people. In fact, he explained his focus is to help the next generation — whom he described as "sharp, astute, tolerant, thoughtful, entrepreneurial" young people — prepare to take on their own leadership roles and change the world.
"If that happens I think we’ll end up being just fine," he said confidently.
Oh Obama, we missed you so.
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