Selfies are a major cause of death

The smartphone trend is accompanied by another trend, very popular but much more risky, that of the selfie. A study conducted by the Io Foundation and published in the Journal of travel medicine shows that between January 2008 and July 2021, selfies are responsible for approximately 379 deaths.

This phenomenon is related to the use of smartphones that simplify the possibility of taking a souvenir photo by immortalizing oneself in the photo with the landscape in the background. This practice leads to many accidents, as the attention is more focused on the framing of the photo than on the immediate environment.

Most of the fatal accidents observed concern falls for 216 cases, then road accidents for 123 cases and drowning for 66 cases. Other more unusual situations involved firearms, electrocution or attacks by wild animals. The majority of deaths involve tourists even though the Covid-19 crisis has limited their involvement by restricting travel, but the trend observed is indeed an increase in the frequency of accidents.

Since January 1, 2021, for example, 31 fatal accidents have already been reported, i.e. 1 every 13 days or so. India is the country most affected by this phenomenon with one third of the deaths occurring in this country since 2008. It seems that Indians have a greater propensity to take risks to take selfies.

However, other countries have a higher than average number of deaths caused by selfies, notably the United States with 39 deaths and Russia with 33 deaths. The combination of two characteristics could explain this tendency for these last two countries, on the one hand isolated and often very extensive tourist sites and on the other hand more and more frequent solo trips with the desire to bring back picturesque photos.

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