An obsession with capturing spectacular selfies in dangerous locations and situations is encouraging too many people to put their lives at risk, according to a Reuters report. The craze has led to “a string of gruesome deaths worldwide.”
Selfies have been an increasingly popular trend for many years, and it seems almost everyone with a smartphone has bought into it at some point or another. Even high-profile celebrities and public figures have posed for selfies, including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth.
But many look to make their selfies more eye-catching by “pushing the boundaries of safety and decorum,” Reuters reports, such as dangling from skyscrapers, standing in front of crashing waves or speeding trains, and posing with dangerous objects.
As a result, selfie addicts are putting their lives at risk, and many have died trying to get a jaw-dropping shot.
In June, two men in the Ural Mountains died after posing pulling the pin from a hand grenade; in May a woman survived shooting herself in the head in her Moscow office; a month later a 21-year-old university graduate plunged 40 feet (12 metres) to her death while posing hanging from a Moscow bridge.
A 19-year-old father of two shot himself earlier this week after posing for a selfie with a gun, while five selfie takers were gored to death by bison in Yellowstone National Park.
The fatalities have forced governments and regulators to take the risks involved more seriously. Many have launched campaigns that warn selfie takers of the danger they put themselves under when they attempt to take pictures in dangerous locations.
Russia has launched its own poster campaign, while the European Union has proposed a law that would prevent selfie snappers from uploading images to social media that contain landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, or Rome’s Trevi Fountain.
Officials in India have also implemented a “no selfie zone” at the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival.
Jesse Fox, an assistant professor of communications at Ohio State University, says that selfies attract people who are more likely to take risks. “It’s all about me. It’s putting me in the frame. I’m getting attention and when I post that to social media,” Fox toldReuters.
Unfortunately, the risks haven’t made selfies any less popular. Searches for the term “selfie” were eight times more frequent in 2014 over 2013, and they appear to be just as popular now.
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