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Introduction
Sele 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 seles were uploaded
to Google photos in 2015.[2] About 1 million seles are clicked
per day in 18‑ to 24‑year‑old demographic. Pew research centers
have found that around 55% of millenials have posted a sele
on social media services.[3]
Technology has also promoted the phenomenon of “sele.”
There are sites sharing information on “how to have a perfect
sele” and “different poses for sele.” New terms have been
introduced such as koole, restaurante, musclee, dentise, and
many more. Introduction of “sele sticks” and “sele shoe” have
enhanced obsession among people for seles.[4] These days the
choice of smart phones is based on their sele picture quality. In
addition, there are certain events held at school or college level
that promotes “seles” like the “best sele” prize.
Clicking seles 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 “sele 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 sele.[7]
Seles are never reported as an ofcial cause of death. It is believed
that sele deaths are underreported and the true problem needs to
be addressed. For example, certain road accidents while posing for
seles are reported as death due to Road Trafc Accident. Thus,
the true magnitude of problem is underestimated. It is therefore
important to assess the true burden, causes, and reasons for sele
deaths so that appropriate interventions can be made.
Seles:Aboonorbane?
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. Seles:
A boon or bane?. J Family Med Prim Care 2018;7:828-31.
This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative
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Bhansal, et al.: Sele 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 sele
deaths. Our study incorporates the records from news reports,
thus we were able to get a wider range of information related
to sele deaths.
Objectives
The objective of this article is to study the epidemiology of
sele‑related deaths across the globe.
Methodology
Sele‑related death was dened as any accidental death that
occurs while doing self‑photography or clicking seles. 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 “sele deaths; sele accidents; sele mortality; self
photography deaths; koole 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 sele‑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. Sele 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 seles have been considered
2. The news reports in language other than English
3. Duplicates were identied based on date and time of event,
location of event, age, and gender of victim. The duplicates
identied were removed from the study
4. The news reports that contained statistical articles regarding
seles, opinions regarding sele deaths, or further research
on sele deaths were excluded from the study.
Results
We report a comprehensive analysis of sele‑related deaths.
From October 2011 to November 2017, there have been 259
deaths while clicking seles in 137 incidents. There have been 3
sele‑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 sele 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 sele‑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 sele 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
seles. The most common drowning incidents include washed
away by waves on beach, capsizing of boats while rowing, clicking
seles 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 sele‑related deaths because of rearms
occurred in the United States.
We also classied reasons for deaths due to sele as risky behavior
or non‑risky behavior [Figure 3]. The incident where it is quite
evident that the person took risk to click sele and lost her life has
been classied as risky. For example, getting to a slippery edge of
a cliff to click sele 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 seles 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 seles is considered to be a mode of self‑expression
in today’s generation like looking in a mirror. Seles 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 inuences them to
post unique pictures which may also involve indulging in risky
behavior to click seles.[8]
Our study reports 259 deaths due to sele deaths in 137
incidents. A signicant number of cases are not reported
Figure 1: Age wise distribution of sele deaths
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Bhansal, et al.: Sele 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
sele‑related deaths since these countries grab a major chunk
in overall numbers.
There has been an exponential increase in the number of sele
deaths from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017. This is because of
increased usage of mobile phones, enhanced sele features on
mobile phones, increased availability of sele sticks, and also
promotion of the phenomenon of seles through events like
“best sele prize.”
About three‑fourth of sele deaths occurred in males. A project
called selecity[9] has established that women take more seles
as compared to men. But because men are more likely to take
risk to click sele as compared to women, it justies 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 seles. Interestingly, most of the sele 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 sele deaths country wise
Figure 4: Tree map showing selcides in males and females
Figure 3: Risky and non-risky distribution of sele deaths gender wise
Table1:Causesofsele‑relateddeath
Cause of sele 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.: Sele deaths
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 831 Volume 7 : Issue 4 : July-August 2018
India has the highest number of sele‑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 seles.
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 seles is more
prevalent in India as compared to other countries.
Seles take a toll on a large number of adolescents.[7] There
have been certain measures taken to reduce sele deaths such
as declaration of certain areas as “No sele zones.” In Mumbai,
16 areas have been declared as “no sele 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 sele deaths.[11] In Russia, there are boards and slogans
displaying not to take seles 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 sele 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 sele
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 sele‑related deaths in India. Thus,
certain deaths due to seles may be reported as road trafc
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 sele 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. Seles are themselves
not harmful, but the human behavior that accompanies seles
is dangerous. Individuals need to be educated regarding certain
risky behaviors and risky places where seles should not be
taken. “No sele 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
sele‑related deaths.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conicts of interest.
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