Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has dubbed the hunt for the perfect profile picture and the obsession over gaining likes on social media as a "disease of society".
The primate’s comments come after a rise in the trend of dangerous selfie taking in Russia.
About 100 people died or were seriously injured taking selfies in Russia in 2015, according to Russian police figures.
In February, Russian model Viktoria Odintsova was dangled off the side of a 1,000ft skyscraper in Dubai in order to capture a death-defying photo to impress her three million social media followers.
