Put on a stance, make a perfect pout, and hold out an arm to take the perfect selfie. This seems to be the perfect way to capture moments in modern times. Whether you are the Eiffel Tower, or enjoying a swim at sunset in Goa, or our grocery shopping with your mother, everything needs to be captured with a selfie. And this obsession may soon be termed as a mental illness of ‘selfitis’. This vain act is taking more lives than you had imagined.
Taking a selfie is not as innocent as it sounds. The front camera is taking more lives than the makers had envisaged. The study by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi found 259 people died while attempting to take a selfie between October 2011 and November 2017. And the highest number of these vain deaths was found in India.
The selfie culture is proving fatal. People have fallen off bridges, been stomped into pulp by elephants, attacked by wild bears, and toppled into rough seas while attempting a perfect selfie. And why? Just because you need to capture yourself living the moment, instead of actually living it.
A Polish tourist in Seville, Spain, fell off a bridge and died attempting to take a selfie. A Cessna pilot lost control of his plane, killing himself and his passengers, while trying to take a selfie in 2014. In 2015, Russian authorities even launched a campaign warning that ‘A cool selfie could cost you your life’.
But now, taking a selfie has garnered social validation. Few days back, a 12 year old girl managed to click a selfie with the Pope in Ireland. Now, it seems to have received divine approval.
Image Credit: irishexaminer
Guess it comes down to prudence when taking a selfie. Unless the people start using some common sense, the selfie culture could turn into an obsessive behaviour, requiring medical attention before it takes too many lives again. And dying due to vanity could probably be the worst reason to go.
