Selfies: A boon or bane?

Abstract

Background
Selfie deaths have become an emerging problem and we performed this study to assess the epidemiology of selfie-related deaths across the globe.

Subject and Methods
We performed a comprehensive search for keywords such as “selfie deaths; selfie accidents; selfie mortality; self photography deaths; koolfie deaths; mobile death/accidents” from news reports to gather information regarding selfie deaths.

Results
From October 2011 to November 2017, there have been 259 deaths while clicking selfies in 137 incidents. The mean age was 22.94 years. About 72.5% of the total deaths occurred in males and 27.5% in females. The highest number of incidents and selfie-deaths has been reported in India followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan. Drowning, transport, and fall form the topmost reasons for deaths caused by selfies. We also classified reasons for deaths due to selfie as risky behavior or non-risky behavior. Risky behavior caused more deaths and incidents due to selfies than non-risky behavior. The number of deaths in females is less due to risky behavior than non-risky behavior while it is approximately three times in males.

Conclusion
“No selfie zones” areas should be declared across tourist areas especially places such as water bodies, mountain peaks, and over tall buildings to decrease the incidence of selfie-related deaths.

Full text

© 2018 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 828
Introduction
Sele is a recent phenomenon and was named as the word
of the year 2013 by Oxford Dictionary.[1] It is described as a
photograph that a person takes of himself (or group) typically
using a smartphone likely for the purpose of sharing in social
media. Google estimated that 24 billion seles were uploaded
to Google photos in 2015.[2] About 1 million seles are clicked
per day in 18‑ to 24‑year‑old demographic. Pew research centers
have found that around 55% of millenials have posted a sele
on social media services.[3]
Technology has also promoted the phenomenon of “sele.”
There are sites sharing information on “how to have a perfect
sele” and “different poses for sele.” New terms have been
introduced such as koole, restaurante, musclee, dentise, and
many more. Introduction of “sele sticks” and “sele shoe” have
enhanced obsession among people for seles.[4] These days the
choice of smart phones is based on their sele picture quality. In
addition, there are certain events held at school or college level
that promotes “seles” like the “best sele” prize.
Clicking seles and sharing them on social media has become a mode
of self‑expression. People sometimes portray themselves amidst
dangerous settings[5,6] so as to gain attention on social media sites. In
some cases, this has had fatal consequences. The rst time Google
search engine got a request for “sele deaths” in January 2014,
when the death of a Lebanonian became the tragic viral sensation
after being killed by a car bomb moments after posing for a sele.[7]
Seles are never reported as an ofcial cause of death. It is believed
that sele deaths are underreported and the true problem needs to
be addressed. For example, certain road accidents while posing for
seles are reported as death due to Road Trafc Accident. Thus,
the true magnitude of problem is underestimated. It is therefore
important to assess the true burden, causes, and reasons for sele
deaths so that appropriate interventions can be made.
Seles:Aboonorbane?
Agam Bansal1, Chandan Garg2, Abhijith Pakhare1, Samiksha Gupta1
1Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh,
2Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Abs tr Act
Background: Selfie deaths have become an emerging problem and we performed this study to assess the epidemiology of selfie‑related
deaths across the globe. Subject and Methods: We performed a comprehensive search for keywords such as “selfie deaths; selfie
accidents; selfie mortality; self photography deaths; koolfie deaths; mobile death/accidents” from news reports to gather information
regarding selfie deaths. Results: From October 2011 to November 2017, there have been 259 deaths while clicking selfies in 137
incidents. The mean age was 22.94 years. About 72.5% of the total deaths occurred in males and 27.5% in females. The highest number
of incidents and selfie‑deaths has been reported in India followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan. Drowning, transport, and
fall form the topmost reasons for deaths caused by selfies. We also classified reasons for deaths due to selfie as risky behavior or
non‑risky behavior. Risky behavior caused more deaths and incidents due to selfies than non‑risky behavior. The number of deaths
in females is less due to risky behavior than non‑risky behavior while it is approximately three times in males. Conclusion: “No selfie
zones” areas should be declared across tourist areas especially places such as water bodies, mountain peaks, and over tall buildings
to decrease the incidence of selfie‑related deaths.
Keywords: Mortality, no selfie zone, risky, selfie
Original Article
Access this article online
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Website:
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DOI:
10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_109_18
Address for correspondence: Dr. Agam Bansal,
Room no. 213 Boys Hostel, All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, Saket Nagar, Bhopal ‑ 462 020, Madhya Pradesh, India.
E‑mail: agambansal7@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Bansal A, Garg C, Pakhare A, Gupta S. Seles:
A boon or bane?. J Family Med Prim Care 2018;7:828-31.
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Bhansal, et al.: Sele deaths
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 829 Volume 7 : Issue 4 : July-August 2018
Previous studies have taken data from Wikipedia and Twitter
images, which may underestimate the true number of sele
deaths. Our study incorporates the records from news reports,
thus we were able to get a wider range of information related
to sele deaths.
Objectives
The objective of this article is to study the epidemiology of
sele‑related deaths across the globe.
Methodology
Sele‑related death was dened as any accidental death that
occurs while doing self‑photography or clicking seles. Initially,
we made an exhaustive list of the English newspapers of various
countries using Wikipedia or Ministry of broadcasting of
respective countries. We performed a Google search for keywords
such as “sele deaths; sele accidents; sele mortality; self
photography deaths; koole deaths; mobile death/accidents.”
The web link addresses of the news from search results were
cross‑matched with the web links of list of prepared English
newspapers of various countries. The results that did not match
were excluded from the study.
Inclusion criteria
1. Incidents of sele‑related deaths reported in news in English
Language
2. The news report links that matched with the list of prepared
English newspapers.
Exclusion criteria
1. Sele deaths/mortality was differentiated from deaths due
to mobile phones. For example, if a person died while using
mobile phone, he was excluded from study. Only deaths while
clicking seles have been considered
2. The news reports in language other than English
3. Duplicates were identied based on date and time of event,
location of event, age, and gender of victim. The duplicates
identied were removed from the study
4. The news reports that contained statistical articles regarding
seles, opinions regarding sele deaths, or further research
on sele deaths were excluded from the study.
Results
We report a comprehensive analysis of sele‑related deaths.
From October 2011 to November 2017, there have been 259
deaths while clicking seles in 137 incidents. There have been 3
sele‑related deaths reported in 2011; 2 in 2013; 13 in 2014; 50 in
2015; 98 and 93, respectively, in 2016 and 2017. In one incident
with 48 casualities, we were unable to obtain data regarding their
age and gender. The mean age was 22.94 years with range from
10 to 68 years. About 72.5% (153) of the total deaths occurred
in males and 27.5% in females. Considering agewise distribution,
about 50% (106) of total sele deaths occurred in 20–29 year age
group followed by 36% deaths in 10–19 year age group [Figure 1].
Highest number of incidents and sele‑deaths has been reported
in India accounting for approximately 50% of total reported
followed by Russia, the United States, and Pakistan [Figure 2].
Except India, the ratio of casualties to incidents is approximately 1,
whereas it is double in India.
The causes of sele deaths along with the respective deaths and
incident cases have been elicited in Table 1. Drowning, transport,
and fall form the topmost three reasons for deaths caused by
seles. The most common drowning incidents include washed
away by waves on beach, capsizing of boats while rowing, clicking
seles on shore while not knowing how to swim, or ignoring
warnings. Similarly, for transport, it is majorly the accidents due
to clicking in front of a running train. Among all the reasons
for death, drowning and re have the highest deaths/incident
ratio. Also, most of the sele‑related deaths because of rearms
occurred in the United States.
We also classied reasons for deaths due to sele as risky behavior
or non‑risky behavior [Figure 3]. The incident where it is quite
evident that the person took risk to click sele and lost her life has
been classied as risky. For example, getting to a slippery edge of
a cliff to click sele has been marked risky while getting hit by a
sea wave on a calm sea and drowning has been marked non‑risky.
In case of ambiguity (for example, slipping from stairs and getting
injured and nally succumbing), a survey was conducted with 15
respondents and majority vote was taken to classify into one of
the classes. Risky behavior caused more deaths and incidents due
to seles than non‑risky behavior. Our study has shown that the
number of deaths in females is less due to risky behavior than
non‑risky behavior while it is approximately three times in males.
Figure 4 is a tree map demonstrating the risky and non‑risky
behavior in males and females.
Discussion
Taking seles is considered to be a mode of self‑expression
in today’s generation like looking in a mirror. Seles are well
popular among Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest
users. It is rewarding for individuals seeing the number of likes
and positive comments and this further inuences them to
post unique pictures which may also involve indulging in risky
behavior to click seles.[8]
Our study reports 259 deaths due to sele deaths in 137
incidents. A signicant number of cases are not reported
Figure 1: Age wise distribution of sele deaths
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Bhansal, et al.: Sele deaths
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 830 Volume 7 : Issue 4 : July-August 2018
in developing countries, which will also trickle down to
sele‑related deaths since these countries grab a major chunk
in overall numbers.
There has been an exponential increase in the number of sele
deaths from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017. This is because of
increased usage of mobile phones, enhanced sele features on
mobile phones, increased availability of sele sticks, and also
promotion of the phenomenon of seles through events like
“best sele prize.”
About three‑fourth of sele deaths occurred in males. A project
called selecity[9] has established that women take more seles
as compared to men. But because men are more likely to take
risk to click sele as compared to women, it justies the higher
number of deaths and incidents for men.
Overall, the total number of casualties and incidents is high
for 10–19 and 20–29 age group, highest for latter. Then, it
decreases as the age range goes up. It is expected because
people tend to be less adventurous as they age. This is evident
from the fact that the reasons for casualties in higher age range
are animal/fall unlike electrocution/drowning/rearms and so
on in younger age group.
Drowning and re have the highest deaths/incidents ratio among
all reasons because most of the times the other person who
dies in incident is the one who actually got into trouble while
clicking seles. Interestingly, most of the sele deaths due to
rearms occurred in the United States, which could be due to
less restrictive gun laws in the region.
Figure 2: Distribution of sele deaths country wise
Figure 4: Tree map showing selcides in males and females
Figure 3: Risky and non-risky distribution of sele deaths gender wise
Table1:Causesofsele‑relateddeath
Cause of sele death Sum of mortality Sum of incident count
Animal 8 7
Drowned 70 32
Electrocution 16 13
Fall 48 41
Fire 48 1
Firearm 11 11
Other 7 4
Transport 51 28
Total 259 137
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Bhansal, et al.: Sele deaths
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 831 Volume 7 : Issue 4 : July-August 2018
India has the highest number of sele‑related deaths. One
reason that partially accounts for such high share is the world’s
largest young (age ≤30 years) population residing in India, the
age group that has the highest number of deaths due to seles.
Also, our study has shown that the ratio of deaths to incidents
is almost double in India, whereas in other countries incidents
approximate the number of deaths. This unique feature could
be attributed to the reason that trend of group seles is more
prevalent in India as compared to other countries.
Seles take a toll on a large number of adolescents.[7] There
have been certain measures taken to reduce sele deaths such
as declaration of certain areas as “No sele zones.” In Mumbai,
16 areas have been declared as “no sele zones.”[10] In Indonesia,
administrative officials are preparing a safe selfie spot for
foreigners and tourists at Mt. Merapi taking into consideration
the risk of sele deaths.[11] In Russia, there are boards and slogans
displaying not to take seles in particular risky condition that
could endanger life.[12] Lamba et al.[13] are working on developing
an application that will be able to identify when someone is
taking a sele at dangerous situation and thus alert him or her to
the possible risk to life. This is based on analyzing the location
service and identifying a risky and unsafe location.
Although our study has enlisted the largest number of sele
deaths and incidents till date, this is just the tip of iceberg. Many
cases are not reported. The limitation of our study was that
we included news reports only in English language. Therefore,
news reports in local language have been missed. There is
no reporting of cases as sele‑related deaths in India. Thus,
certain deaths due to seles may be reported as road trafc
accidents or others, which leads to underreporting of a large
number of cases.
Large‑scale use of phone and time‑to‑time up gradation of
phone features have led to increased sele deaths. Usually the
youth and tourists are frequently affected because of the desire
of “being cool,” posting photos on social medical, and getting
rewards in forms of likes and comments. Seles are themselves
not harmful, but the human behavior that accompanies seles
is dangerous. Individuals need to be educated regarding certain
risky behaviors and risky places where seles should not be
taken. “No sele zones” areas should be declared across many
tourist areas specially places such as water bodies, mountain
peaks, and over tall buildings to decrease the incidence of
sele‑related deaths.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conicts of interest.
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