The new trend started thanks to the social networking boom is capturing “Selfies”, and India, in particular, is crazy about selfies, with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi actively sharing selfies across all social media accounts. With people competing with each other in taking selfies at unique places like on top of tall buildings, near fires, in front of oncoming trains etc which are going overboard, according to an article in the Washington Post, there have been 27 selfie-related deaths around the world officially recorded and almost half have happened in India.
The craze of taking selfies has reached such proportions that some universities are providing courses related to take selfies and lots of tutorials about taking selfies can be seen online. Social networking sites like Facebook has added to the growth of number of selfies being taken. Some of the poses becoming famous thanks to selfie are pouts, duck-faces, squinted eyes etc. To capture the background along with yourself and for group selfies a Selfie stick is also in the market.
Coming back to the Selfie-related deaths which is quite disheartening to hear about, a Japanese tourist fell down from the steps of Taj Mahal suffering fatal head injuries, another death resulted while taking a selfie in front of an oncoming train, a 60-foot fall from a cliff, slippery river canal of a scenic river canal, boat tips over at a picnic. These are some of the scenarios which have lead to deaths while taking selfies in India which has accounted to almost half of the total selfie related deaths in the world.
In certain places like Mumbai there have been certain places marked as “no-selfie zones” where three young girls were swept away into the Arabian Sea while trying to take selfies near Bandra. Another no-selfie zone is the Kumbh mela, a massive Hindu religious gathering where organizers have implemented these areas to prevent blockages and c0ngestion which will trigger stampedes.
Source: WashingtonPost
