Recently, I’ve been hearing my family tell me about another person tragically die at the Grand Canyon, while taking a selfie on the edge of a cliff or lookout. Sadly, this trend is not just happening at the Grand Canyon, where four deaths have already happened in the past month. It’s happening in many places, whether it’s Yosemite National Park, the edges of skyscrapers—a phenomenon known as “Rooftopping”—or doing reckless activities such as riding on top of cars. Just about a month ago, my dad saw a patient who was in a coma, for riding on top of a friend’s car as a risk challenged by his group of friends. The reason for the huge increase in recent deaths of young teenagers and adults is very likely the increase in the usage of social media platforms.
The increase in social media risk-taking culture is increasingly prevalent among young and impulsive teenagers, wanting to take that perfect Instagram selfie to have attention from one’s followers and gain the most likes for their viral post. Since 2014, social media and YouTube have posed several dangerous “challenges” such as the “Fire Challenge,” where people actually set themselves on fire, or the “Tide Pod Challenge,” where, again, impulsive people consume laundry detergent Pods. Other stunts, driven by social media and the need to impress their followers or acquaintances in social media have included posing on railroad tracks, posing with dangerous weapons, posing on rocks on beaches with large waves, diving off rooftops into swimming pools...the list goes on. Social media has made us increasingly more impulsive and has dramatically increased our desire to impress our friends and acquaintances on social media, in hopes of gaining more likes and followers. The question we ask: “Is our life worth just one photo? Just one post?”
What’s even more tragic about the links between social media and risk-taking deaths is that it starts a chain reaction among the person initiating the risk to their entire friend group. For example, if one person posts a video of them taking on the Tide Pod Challenge, it can lead to many more doing the same—almost “daring” others to risk the challenge. Because social media can be such a powerful place for developing our own self-esteem, not participating in these challenges and not succumbing to our friend’s dares can cause us to be ridiculed and feel lonely, left out, and inferior. For me, social media is beginning to take over our lives, and in some cases, take away our lives as we strive to stay afloat in the whirlpool of social media.
In some cases, the risk of putting your life on the line pays off. For example, a British YouTuber Jay Swingler performed a stunt where he placed a plastic bag with a breathing tube over his head, gluing his head to the inside of a microwave with the plastic bag and plaster set. The result: a team of paramedics coming to rescue and free the man. But he woke up the next day with 70,000 new YouTube subscribers, the video with nearly six million views, and a new channel with 4.5 million subscribers. Was it worth it? To many, yes. Sadly, this drives many people to attempt the same stunt and enjoy the same rewards, but in the process, it takes away so many young lives that could’ve been saved without the presence of media.
Going back to the Grand Canyon, High risk selfie publicity allows for the quintessential model of a person in this increasingly digital age. Risk taking becomes part of our lives, striving to become famous in our social media platforms, competing with others and competing with our own lives just to be seen and our posts and videos to be viewed and liked. Our own narcissism and internal crisis drives this deliberate risk taking for an audience, and enjoying the rewards of likes, clicks, subscriptions, and followers. So what is the lesson: Of course, I’m not saying to not use social media, but always be aware of our own lives outside this digital network, and take a minute to think about the potential consequences of our risky actions and tragic effects a simple desire for popularity can entail.
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