Thursday, October 4, 2018

Death by Selfie - How Many People Worldwide Have Died from Taking Selfies Since 2011? Study Shows More than 250 "Selficides"

"Dying for the 'Gram"
"Dying for the 'Gram" - "Selficides" Claim More than 250 People Since 2011

According to a report from Vice:

A new study has found more than 250 people have died in pursuit of a perfect selfie.

The study published by the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care journal (and republished by the National Library of Medicine in the US) looks into how many of us social media obsessed plebs are dying for the ‘gram. Led by Dr. Agam Bansal at the India Institute of Medical Sciences, the study analyzed news articles from October 2011 to November 2017 and found there have been 259 reported deaths—dubbed selficides in one part of the article—resulting from that never-ending thirst for Instagram likes.

In regards to those 259, the researchers broke down the geography of the deaths and found that the “highest number of incidents and selfie-deaths” were in “India followed by Russia, the United States, and Pakistan.” The average age of those getting killed was unsurprisingly pretty young at 22.94 years. According to the data, the chance of you reaching death by selfie drops off significantly (again, unsurprisingly) by the time someone hits 30. Just over three-quarters of those killed taking selfies were men (also, unsurprisingly).

Some of these deaths have been relatively high profile…In May of this year, a man in India was mauled to death by a bear while trying to get a selfie. There have been several stories of people falling just after they’ve taken the selfie leaving only the ghostly photo of them seconds before their demise. The study makes it clear that this isn’t a small problem and there are almost certainly more people out there who died taking selfies than the 259 they reported.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” reads part of the study. “Many cases are not reported.”
                                               .                       .                         .
The top three causes of deaths were drowning, being hit by a vehicle, or falling. In terms of the vehicle-related deaths the biggest killer has been people trying to get that perfect shot in front of a moving train. Unsurprisingly the United States leads when it comes to firearm-related selfie deaths.

Watch: Images of Tragic Selficides [These Are Graphic and May be Disturbing]

Watch: 10 Tragic Deaths by Selfie



Selfies Have Claimed More than 250 Deaths Around the Globe

We all need to be smarter, and these statistics, while gruesome, help remind us all...