It is no doubt that “selfies” have been taking over almost everybody’s lives on the internet. Selfies are flooding your Facebook and Twitter feed, becoming a nuisance to people’s daily lives. While these dreaded selfie-takers may think their little activity is harmless fun, little do they know they are actually harming themselves in many ways with each and every selfie they snap.
One may wonder how something so simple as taking a picture of yourself could cause any harm. Let’s start out with some of the obvious ways. In 2014, there were numerous reports of deaths caused by people taking selfies while doing something ridiculous. Here are just a few of them:
- In April 2014, a Russian amateur photographer (17 years old) climbed atop a railway bridge in Saint Petersburg. She ended up losing her balance and falling to her death after taking a selfie.
- In May, 2014, the pilot of a Cessna 150K and his passenger were killed when the pilot was distracted taking selfies and lost control of the plane.
- In August 2014, a Polish couple fell off a cliff in Portugal after crossing a safety barrier to take a selfie. They were survived by their two children who were present at the scene.
Due to what seemed like a fun picture idea to some people at the time, is now a haunting reminder to family and friends that were left behind.
With the year 2014 being proclaimed as “The Year of The Selfie”, you can only imagine how many other people have gotten themselves in to a bad situation for the sake of a silly photo, or in some cases not so silly – referring to selfies where the person has some sort of weapon or explosive involved. Yes, it has been done. There have been other reports on people posing for a selfie with a gun to their head, resulting in death, or severe injury (shocking, right?).
Besides the psychological harm that can be caused to the families of the people killing themselves with selfies, there have also been studies shown that selfies have links to narcissism and self-objectification. While this is a relatively small issue, it is something that is being noticed more and more by professionals. Follow this link to learn more about the connection between narcissism and selfies.
More serious psychological disorders to selfie-taking individuals include Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (a chronic mental health condition in which the sufferer obsesses over perceived flaws with their body). To read more on this mental affliction, click here.
An extreme example of OCD and BDD is (now 20 year old) Danny Bowman. In his quest of taking the perfect selfie, Danny dropped out of school, lost 28 pounds, and spent up to 10 hours a day taking over 200 selfies, just trying to capture the perfect one. After months of selfie-taking, and countless fights with his parents, Danny soon realized that he could not ever take the perfect selfie. He eventually tried to commit suicide.
While this is obviously an extreme case, the possibility of similar more milder cases is extremely high. People are spending less time interacting with others because they are so caught up in themselves. What starts out small could turn into something so big and out of control, like what happened to Danny Bowman.
People are spending so much time taking glamour shots of themselves that they are letting this world slip right pass them. I, for one, will no longer stand by and watch the selfie take over. We have to stand up together, as Anti-Selfie Supporters and fight, not only for ourselves, but also for the people being plagued by the selfie. If we do not stand up for them, nobody else will.
#StopTheSelfie.
Featured photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/users/kelseyannvere-339731/ via pixabay.com
