People are getting more daring and crazy trying to take selfies.* Now with the advent of the selfie stick (see earlier post), people can take them with a wider lens, crazier angles, or even selfies that don’t look like selfies. With all the craze, hype and obsession people have with selfies, it was just a matter of time before people started getting injured and killed.
One of the craziest selfies I’ve seen involved a man near the edge of an active volcano, wearing protective gear, which would not have protected him if he’d fallen backwards into the lava. Another one featured a picture of a man taking a selfie while running from the bulls in the Pamplona Bull Run. Or the story of a teenager who pointed a gun at his own head and tried to take a selfie with his phone, except he accidentally squeezed the trigger instead of taking the picture.
The teen lived, but others have not been so fortunate in trying to capture the perfect selfie. Most of the stories around people dying while taking selfies frequently involve heights (in the form of cliffs, building edges, and bridges) or doing something like playing around on train tracks. When I read some of the stories I have to wonder if the person would have ventured so close to the edge if there wasn’t a picture involved? Or would s/he paid more attention to the dangers if s/he wasn’t so absorbed in snapping the perfect selfie to prove (remember?) that s/he did something risky?
Although head lice doesn’t really compare with selfie injuries and death, I found several articles suggesting that an increase of head lice in schools could be from the popularity of taking selfies. However, none of the claims were ever substantiated. The idea, according to a few news stories, is that the lice spreads amongst children and teens leaning their heads in too close together for too long to capture selfies.
If you love taking selfies, be careful how far back you step and whose head you’re rubbing against. Clearly capturing selfies is turning into something of an extreme sport.
*A selfie is a term for a picture you took of yourself.
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