Even after the selfie generation has seen lots of people getting hurt and even dying while taking selfies and videos, they continue to do it with utter disregard of their safety
The taking of selfies is now considered legitimately dangerous.
A review by the University of New South Wales concluded that taking selfies could actually pose a “public health problem.”
Referencing data from multiple peer-reviewed studies in both the U.S. and Australia since 2011, the review was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in September of this year.
Selfie-related deaths at aquatic locations stood out as the most concerning incidents — including photo-taking at scenic and photogenic areas.
The general use of smartphones and apps is dangerous, the research pointed out, but four of the five peer-reviewed studies identified falls from heights due to selfie-taking as the most common cause of injury and death.
Drowning was identified as the second most common cause of death.
The study, though, didn’t really look at injuries on man-made structures or trains or stuff. And that’s leaving a lot of injuries and deaths out of the mix. How about those stupid vids where they record themselves getting out of their car to dance next to it, which often turns out badly? Where they’re dancing on tables or something and crash down? Just generally doing dumb things which get them hurt for the camera? I do not know about you, but, we rarely did dumb things like that when I was growing up and through my 20’s.
The people getting hurt the most are women, and the mean age is 22. “All for the ‘gram” is a dangerous saying. They all have to take photos of themselves at places, rather than just of the places, and, because they’ll take lots to get the perfect one, they put themselves in a bad place. Recently, I’ve seen lots of articles about “mourists” (moron and tourist) getting messed up because they got too close to wildlife.
The study concluded that the public health problem should require a “public health risk communication response.”
“To date, little attention has been paid to averting selfie-related incidents through behavior change methodologies or direct messaging to users, including through social media apps,” the authors concluded.
It’ll work as well as “don’t do drugs” and “stop signs mean stop”. They’d have to catch kids at a young age and hope the advice works for 10-20 years down the road. They’d probably have to teach kids how stupid it all looks.
Risk reduction methods have included “no selfie zones,” physical barriers, signage and information about dangerous zones provided on social media.
The research revealed, however, that these risk mitigation efforts haven’t been enough to prevent accidents.
What do you call an accident where you’ve put yourself in a bad situation? If you’re blowing stop signs and get hurt, that’s on you.
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, of NYU Langone, was not involved in the study review. But he agreed that selfie-related accidents constitute a public health crisis.
The issue doesn’t just lie in physical injury, he said via email to Fox News Digital; it also introduces the “unhealthy psychological aspects of taking a pause from actually living life to take a freeze-frame of it.”
Siegel added, “This involves an emotional cost as well, and is an unhealthy extension of our celebrity culture and social media pressures.”
I’ve seen some of these folks, from the young to the middle age, obsess about getting the right photo, the right video. It’s not healthy mentally.
Death by selfie should be considered a form of Darwinian selection. It should be encouraged.
and the mean age is 22.
Yeah, they’ve pretty much got it figured out about then.
It’s not a “public health risk” unless someone else is put at risk by the selfie-shooter. Until then it’s “evolution in action”. 35mm cameras have had self-timers for decades so the photographer could get into the scene, but I’ve never heard of any fatalities.