Selfie death is a real thing. People do dangerous shit all the time for their sweet snaps. Like, this one here. This triggers vertigo just by association. You know, "don't try this at home?" Meet, "don't try this on top of a building in Shanghai."
A recent study jointly conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and the Indraprastha Institute of Information in Delhi shows that the social media fatalities are climbing at a semi-alarming rate. The MIT Technology Review estimates that 24 billion selfies were uploaded to Google Photos last year alone.
So maybe it's not shocking that selfie deaths have increased from 15 in 2014, to 39 in 2015, and now to 73 in just the first eight months of this year. To contextualize: six people died of shark attacks in 2015.
The main area for selfie deaths was India. 76 people died in the country between March 2014 and September 2016 of the 127 total selfie deaths worldwide. Second on the list was Pakistan, with nine. The countries are geographical neighbors. Researchers attribute the high Indian death count to a very specific cultural meme.
“This trend caters to the belief that posing on or next to train tracks with their best friend is regarded as romantic and a sign of never-ending friendship,” researchers write.
Russia and America are third and fourth on the list, with six and eight deaths for the respective countries. Those deaths stem largely from accidental firearm discharge.
“This might be a consequence of the open gun laws in both the countries,” the team suggests.
The deadliest activities are falling from heights (8 deaths), being hit by a train (12), and electrocution (15).
So if you're going to take a dangerous selfie, try not to do it from a height near an electric train. Oh, and don't point a gun at your head. You'd think that was pretty self-explanatory.
Read the full study here.