To Die For Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The short form, via Tanya Basu↱ at Science of Us: Since 2014, 49 people had been reported dead as a result of some sort of accident involving a selfie. (And this is likely an underestimate, as not every selfie-related death was probably reported in the media.) More than a quarter of selfie-related deaths, perhaps unsurprisingly, are concentrated among 21-year-olds, and 75 percent are male. The most dangerous places to take a self-portrait seem to be high places or in water: 16 people died from falling off a cliff or a tall building, while 14 drowned. Posing next to an oncoming train is responsible for eight deaths, coming in at third place. The other reasons are violent: gunshot (four), grenade (two), plane crash (two), car crash (two), and animal (one). The longer version comes from Zachary Crockett↱ of Priceonomics, including some important data analysis― To an alarming degree, selfie deaths seem to plague India. Here, 19 individuals — 40% of all selfie-related fatalities — met their demise. This can’t solely be attributed to India’s large population (China, by contrast, has only one reported death). So what’s going on? ―anecdotes― Sadly, selfie-takers get much more extreme than cliffs and buildings. Eight victims have been been killed by trains — either via electrocution or direct impact. In march of 2014, a young man posed for a selfie atop a boxcar. Diverted, he was unaware of the 35,000-volt livewire just beside him. When he stepped on it, he was instantly killed. Weeks later, a nearly identical incident occurred in Kerala, India. Three 20-year-old college students were killed last January after attempting to “play daredevil” with on oncoming train in India. According to a friend who bailed out at the last minute, the men were hoping to capture a selfie that would get them “many likes” on social networking sites. Then there are the truly bizarre cases: The 21-year-old Mexican man who accidentally shot himself in the head while taking a selfie with a gun. The Cessna pilot who crashed, killing both himself and a passenger, after his cellphone selfies led him to lose control of the aircraft. The two Russian teens who blew themselves up while posing for a selfie with a live grenade in the Ural Mountains. The man who attempted a selfie at the running of the bulls festival in Spain and was fatally gored in the neck. It seems that humans from all corners of the Earth are prone to taking selfies at sub-optimal moments. Where do the worst case outcomes most commonly happen? ―and some of the world's responses to such lethal stupidity: In the wake of these tragedies, government officials in India have declared 16 “no selfie zones” throughout the country, where large signs and lifeguards warn selfie-takers to steer clear. India isn’t the first country to do this: Russia — which ranks second, with 7 selfie fatalities — released a full-scale marketing campaign last summer (complete with icons of bad selfie ideas) aimed at reducing the spat of deaths in their country. And, really, it is a matter of behavior and choices; that is to say, the problem is not the selfshot itself: Of the 49 cases we examined, not a single death was caused by the selfie itself. To our knowledge, nobody has ever been fatally impaled by a selfie stick; rather, the selfie seems to serve as an inopportune catalyst — a distractor in situations where the picture-taker should should be focused on safety. “A lot of these so-called selfie deaths can be blamed more on carelessness than photography,” Morgan O’Rourke, a risk management professional with 15 years of experience, tells us.____________________ Notes: Basu, Tanya. "Here’s a Breakdown of Selfie-Related Deaths". Science of Us. 5 February 2016. NYMag.com. 8 February 2016. http://sciof.us/1QnIuNk Crockett, Zachary. "The Tragic Data Behind Selfie Fatalities". Pricenomics. 29 January 2016. Pricenomics.com. 8 February 2016. http://bit.ly/1T9e07F
Maybe as individual cases, where extreme stupidity is in play. You know, like hanging off a building or playing with a live grenade. But fatal carelessness is not exactly unique. If I posture the phrase spectacularly rare, I doubt most of these deaths meet either criterion. I do think, though, the selfshot capturing the plummet into the ravine probably belongs in a museum somewhere. I don't know; maybe it's all blur. And, you know, just looking at the Russian public-awareness campaign―from which those warning symbols were taken―I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that people actually need to be told some of this stuff.
I'm sure I remember stories of people walking into lampposts or tripping into fountains because they were too busy texting... I guess it's just the next level of situational blindness.
