Prevent Deadly Selfies: Government Posts Warnings

Photo by Paško Tomić

Twice as many people have died this year shooting selfies than in attacks by sharks. The score to date is 12 to 6.

Twelve people have leaned too far out windows or dangled over precipices or strutted in front of trains or something else daring and stupid, just to document their faces against a dangerous background.

Sharks killed six people.

Sharks are predators. They attack their prey to survive. It’s their nature.

People are supposed to use their brains for survival. Now that we have cameras at our fingertips, are we too focused on ourselves to be aware of our safety?I heard these stats from Scott Simon on his NPR radio show Weekend. Here’s more:

Lin Qiu, who conducted the study for Nanyang Technical University, told the New York Daily News, [people] pay little attention to their surroundings, which may be inappropriate or dangerous. This rising tide of lethal selfies has prompted response around the world.

Authorities put a fence around a cliff of what's called the Wedding Cake Rock in Australia's Royal National Park because people had posted so many photos that showed them doing handstands on the cliff's edge. And Russian officials have put up posters in tourist spots that caution, a cool selfie could cost you your life.

Scott Simon proposes one more warning: Friends don’t let friends make selfies while drinking.

At first, these stats surprised me. Then I remembered times throughout history when man wanted to record his name, face, existence—from graffiti at Pompeii to the “Kilroy was here” slogans painted all over Europe and the U.S. in the World War II era.

Must be our nature.

Now that we have cameras at our fingertips, can we use our heads -about where we pose for our selfies?