According to a startling new report, the number of selfie deaths worldwide is up–way up–and selfie deaths are becoming more and more noticeable, in part because of the media coverage they receive. The strongest case in point is the new Mashable discovery that there have been twelve (12) reported selfie deaths so far in 2015.
By comparison, eight (8) people have died in shark attacks. Both are worldwide figures.
As many observers have pointed out, however, selfies are far more common than sharks. And people often die because they’re distracted, which is almost always the root cause of selfie deaths. Falling, for example, is the number one general reason for selfie deaths: just last week, a Japanese tourist at the Taj Majal fell down a flight of stairs while trying to take a selfie out front and broke his leg. (The tourist also died, though, so the leg break is somewhat superfluous.)
Though there are other means of selfie deaths: according to the same report on the Japanese tourist, a series of Russian children have suffered selfie deaths via electrocution while trying to take snapshots from atop moving carriages. Indeed, the Mashable report points out that train-based selfie deaths are the number two cause: either because people were trying to take selfies involving moving trains, or because they, as in the case of the Russian children, climbed atop dangerous equipment for a memorable shot.
Still: There are way more camera phones than sharks in the world, and a much higher percentage of people have regular access to camera phones than to sharks. Should we be terrified? Disney thinks so; they banned all use of selfie sticks over the summer. So did Coachella and Lollapalooza, among other major outdoor festivals.
Rest assured, however, that the Selfie Spoon is still both really a thing, and really available for you to purchase. There haven’t yet been any reports of anyone choking to death on Cinammon Toast Crunch while posing for an awesome breakfast selfie and momentarily forgetting to breathe. But there are three months left in 2015.
(Photo credits: Selfie deaths one, two via Flickr; Kim Kardashian via Instagram)
