Current Events 2

This event related to the topic of the negative influence of social sites on our society is quite disturbing and thought provoking. Have you ever heard about selfie deaths?

“Selfie death” term appeared a couple of years ago when the popularity of selfies and posting it in social media raised to the unbelievable level. A team of US researchers has found 15 selfie-takers died in 2014, 39 in 2015 and 73 died in the first eight months of 2016.

The latest selfie death what I want to tell you about took place in Calcutta, 13 April. Three men died and a fourth was seriously damaged while trying to save a 22-year-old friend Taraknath Makal who fell off a train while trying to take a selfie minutes after it had chugged out of the station.

There may be two possible reasons why this man wanted to take a selfie during the train was already on his way.

The first one is if you post an extraordinary picture in the social sites, for example, on Instagram, you will be more likely to get a huge amount of likes, comments and shares rather if you post just a casual selfie in the mirror. It is kind of race: who has the most original photo and who will get more likes for it. Therefore, Taraknath Makal was consciously getting out of the train with his phone in the hands to take a selfie. I am sure, that he was realizing the dangerousness of the situation, but the priorities were set wrongly.

The second reason why this man was risking his life is just to get an approval from his friend via the social sites. The social media has become the main place where people judge and range other people. Now it is enough for us just to look at the person's Facebook page and Instagram profile to make a total judgment about him, to tell what kind of person he is like, who he dates, where he spends his time.  Taraknath Makal simply wanted to appear like a brave man who has no fear of anything. Of course, he proved it to all of us, but the cost of it is huge.

Nevertheless, it is glad to see that the society is showing its reaction to these kinds of tragedies and try to give a warning to another people not to repeat such a mistake. For instance, “more campaigns in various media platforms urging people not to use a phone or listen to music while crossing the railway tracks and not to click photographs while traveling” have launched by Eastern Railways, the railways, where this accident appeared. So, there is still hope.

The moral of the story can differ from one person from another. The lesson that personally I got from this tragedy, is that social media is not the place for us to show our abilities and try to approve something.

You can read more about this story here.

In addition, below there is a video showing seven the most astonishing deaths while taking selfies. 

Reference List:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/. (2017). ‘Photography strictly prohibited’: Fatal selfie that resulted in 4 deaths prompts railway advisory. [online] Available at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/photography-strictly-prohibited-fatal-selfie-that-resulted-in-4-deaths-prompts-railway-advisory/story-rra60l3DGoPd0iJU0KUi7O.html .

Bbc.co.uk. (2017). The rise in selfie deaths and how to stop them. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38012990/the-rise-in-selfie-deaths-and-how-to-stop-them