More people die taking selfies than in shark attacks
By Jane Ridley, New York Post, February 14, 2020
Selfies kill. Shutterstock photo
Narcissism is alive and well in 2020, even if people put their lives in danger to satisfy their need for attention.
A new survey found that 41 percent of us have already risked our safety in pursuit of a selfie, while more than half of us would stand on the edge of a cliff for that ideal photo.
A third of respondents have visited a destination purely to digitally capture the scene and 4 percent admitted to endangering someone else for the sake of a good snapshot.
The poll, conducted by custom phone case company Case24.com, questioned 2,023 people — 999 women and 1,024 men — to find out what they were willing to do to appear Instagram perfect.
It found that testosterone-fueled men are more likely to take risks than women, with 61 percent of males accepting the challenge of a cliff-edge photo, compared to 38 percent of females.
Worryingly, more than 1 in 10 (11 percent) have sustained injuries while attempting a selfie. The reported accidents range from falling down hills to falling off bikes and being knocked down by a wave.
This latest study comes seven months after research proved that selfies gone wrong — frequently dubbed selficides — account for more deaths than shark attacks.
Last summer, the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in India found that 259 people worldwide died in 137 selfie-related accidents between 2011 and 2017, compared to just 50 people killed by sharks.
While 259 deaths over a seven-year period may not sound excessive, selfie-related fatalities are on the rise. In 2011, there were only three, but by 2017, the number had shot up to 93.
Selfie accidents — many of which were not lethal — range from the downright sad to the ridiculous. Last March, a woman was attacked by a jaguar in an Arizona zoo after crossing the barrier to take a selfie. Luckily, she survived the mauling.
Two years earlier, Oregon cheerleader Aurora Genai Sheffel, 14, died while trying to take a selfie in the ocean. She was snapping pictures with friends on a log at a beach in Bandon when the tide receded and pulled the heavy timber out from underneath the group. The log rolled on top of the teen, pinning her underwater.
More recently, in September 2018, an 18-year-old Israeli boy named Tomer Frankfurter fell 600 feet to his death in Yosemite National Park while dangling off a ledge from his fingertips. His intention? Smiling for a selfie.
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