While Salman Khan may be urging the general populace and their children to take selfies and every self respecting Facebooker is now a dab hand with the selfie stick, this obsession with taking pictures that include one’s own mug can in fact be dangerous. And we’re not talking only about how the constant feeding of one’s narcissism may be dangerous for maintaining a realistic self image (“that selfie of me pretending to hold up the Taj Mahal got 150 likes, so I must look terrific in that pic” is an example of the commonly encountered self delusion).
Selfies are dangerous
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Text messaging while driving is stupid enough but really how hard is it to wait a few minutes to click that selfie! The nice looking girl taking a selfie as she walked down the street or that personable young man clicking himself with the sea in the background may seem harmless ways to get people’s attention on social networks, this obsession can be really dangerous. Selfie deaths is a phenomenon where people have died trying to capture that perfect selfie, the latest example of this was the Mumbai girl who nearly drowned when a wave literally swept her off her feet as she tried to capture a selfie. Selfie deaths are on the rise around the world.
People who have actually died taking selfies
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So many people have actually died from this selfie obsession that it is officially more dangerous than shark attacks. A Japanese tourist fell down the stairs at the Taj Mahal hotel and died trying to take a selfie. Three students were mown down by a train while trying to take a selfie on the train tracks.
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In Russia two men in the Ural Mountains died as they posed for a photo while pulling the pin from a hand grenade (this appears to stem more from terminal stupidity that the desire to take a picture). Also in Russia, a 17 year old boy died when he fell off a high rooftop attempting to take a selfie for Instagram. In the US a man shot himself in the neck (not with camera obviously) as he tried to take a selfie and died. A man was also killed while trying to take a selfie and simultaneously trying to tackle a bull during a bull fight.
Other reasons selfies are dangerous
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Your selfie says a lot about you: where you are, places you frequent, people you hang out with, your habits, your schedule and so on. It also reveals a lot about your friends and family; details they would rather not divulge. Also trying to get that perfect shot can become addictive! So when Salman says le le le selfie le le re let’s just ignore him shall we?
Author – Reena Daruwalla
