Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
Topics: Phones, Social Media
Gerrard Kaonga
The modern world is full of a whole lot of selfies but many people have given their lives in an attempt to get the perfect picture.
Technology has continued to get more advanced over the last few decades, which means just about everyone walks around with a supercomputer in their pocket.
And one of the early perks of the supercomputers we call smartphones is a camera, and you best believe people have taken a picture of just about everything and anything to post on social media, including the perfect selfie.
If you go on any of the social media platforms - Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - whatever, it won’t be long till you see an impressive selfie. For example, perhaps someone hanging off a cliff or messing around near a waterfall or some other wild stunt.
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Unfortunately, instead of ending up with the perfect picture that elicits many likes, plenty of these attemtps end in tragedy.
Over the years, Wikipedia has managed to keep a tally of all the stories that have emerged globally of people losing their lives while trying to take that ‘ultimate selfie’.
Between 2008 and 2021, the number was estimated to be 379 people, however, it is believed this number has increased to around 480.
And despite this number, it doesn’t look like this trend has any signs of slowing down.
In comparison, more people die each year from trying to take a selfie than from shark attacks, which, on average, account for 5-6 deaths per year globally.
There is a science behind this trend it seems, and social media is certainly tied to it.
Policy director at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Steve Cole has said falls from height are the most common injury mechanism in selfie-related incidents. This is followed by drowning.
He said: “This trend of taking selfies in hazardous locations, such as on the edge of cliffs or during extreme weather conditions, is a concerning behavior.
“The allure of social media recognition often drives individuals to take these unnecessary risks, underestimating the potential dangers involved.”
Coastguards, environment agencies and even governments have had to take steps over the years to ensure people don’t needlessly kill themselves to take a picture.
But the fact that a more wild photo that spreads online can actually lead to money has made these efforts to curb the trend a little more difficult.
But as a Russian government leaflet once warned, ‘a cool selfie can cost you your life’, and that's a warning we can all heed.