With all the technological advances in smartphones over the years, the most popular thing to do has been to take a selfie, a picture of yourself, and post it on Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook. But lately, people have been taking selfies to extreme levels in order to get more likes and viral acclaim for their photos. Many of these extreme selfies have led to critical injuries, or worse. The amount of people who have died while taking a selfie is shocking. A global study has revealed that the quest for extreme selfies killed 259 people between 2011 and 2017. However, researchers claim that the actual number of selfie deaths could be much higher because they are never named as the cause of death.
What’s Behind Our Obsession with Capturing Extreme Risk-Taking?
According to Sarah Diefenbach, a professor of consumer psychology and lead author of the 2017 research article The Selfie Paradox, extreme or otherwise, we take selfies for all kinds of reasons: to communicate with people we love, to build self-esteem, to curate our self-image, to chronicle our personal histories, and increasingly to build our personal brands. We have evolved to be uniquely concerned about how others perceive us. Since we have a much longer childhood than most other mammals, we need that time to figure out how to assimilate into our culture and assert an identity.
We have a basic need for self-presentation. The impulse to fashion our image publicly has only increase in the digital age, which means it’s much harder to get noticed. Our culture encourages extreme selfies in hopes of acquiring a large social media following. Meanwhile, companies like Red Bull seem to promote risky selfies, making it much more appealing to people looking for sponsorship or more followers.
The Solution to Reduce Selfie Deaths
Researchers at the U.S. National Library of Medicine recommend that “no selfie zones” should be introduced at dangerous spots to reduce deaths. These would include the tops of mountains, tall buildings and lakes, where many of the deaths usually occur. Drowning, transport accidents and falling were found to be the most common cause of death. However, death by animal, electrocution, fire and firearms also appeared frequently in reports around the world.
What Comes to Mind When Taking A Selfie?
When we take selfies, our attention is focused on the camera and the shot, instead of our surroundings. So, we literally aren’t paying attention to the fact that we are about to step off a cliff or tumble over a waterfall. Psychologists call it selective attention or inattentional blindness. Our brain can’t possibly process all the stimuli it receives at one time, so it makes choices about what to privilege and what to ignore. Most of us don’t intend to engage in risky behavior, we just don’t realize we’ve wandered too far until it’s too late.
The Involvement of Social Media Platforms
The only way to get these sorts of images shut down, is to take away from their popularity. This is where social media platforms come into play. Facebook and Instagram rely heavily on community standards for policing questionable content. Those standards state that images glorifying violence or self-harm will be removed. Additionally, warning labels are added to any graphic content. Facebook and Instagram gave polices that prohibit content that may lead to real-world harm. Twitter suspends the accounts of anyone posting images of self-harm. YouTube states that it prohibits “violent or gory content intended to shock or disgust viewers.”
Selfie-Death Cases
College student Andrea Norton, just 20 years old, was repositioning herself for a photo, when she fell to her death on a hiking trip in the Ozarks. College student Sydney Monfries fell to her death after climbing Fordham University bell tower and sending out a video via Snapchat. In July 2015, an English hiker was struck by lightning while trekking through the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. The fatal bolt was suspected to have hit the extended metal rod of a selfie stick and electrocuted the young man.
Chezka Agas, a 17-year-old engineering student from the Philippines, was swept into a deadly wave on the beach on Bangui Bay during a birthday gathering. She was part of group of engineering students in attendance that posed for a celebratory photo-op in front of the scenic Bangui windmills when the group became caught in the overpowering ocean current.
A teenage Romanian girl had attempted to take the special selfie on top of a train in the northern town of Iasi, Romania. Anna Urso decided to lie down on the roof of the stationary train car, but when she reached up with one of her legs to pose, she hit an overhead live wire that shocked her with 27,000 volts. A 17-year-old Russian teenager fell off a 30-for railway bridge in St. Petersburg while attempting to get the perfect shot. Xenia Ignatyeva lost her balance, she reached for a hanging cable – which turned out to be a live wire that electrocuted ger with 1,500 watts and she plummeted to her death.