Click a photo to perish: selfie-death and its implications to mental health professionals

Abstract

Selfies are not just development in technology but a disaster. Slowly and steadily it is becoming one of the causes for human death that is not natural. The number of incidences is even more staggering in a developing economy like India. What drives people crazy? To take such dangerous selfies, post it in Social Networking Sites (SNSs) and gain popularity. This review paper tries to understand the etiology behind the selfie taking behaviour, its harmfulness towards the society in general and what mental health professionals need to do to be aware and stay solution focussed for this upcoming menace. Studies across the platforms such as Sciencedirect, Pubmed etc., have been reviewed and scrutinised for deriving out results. Newspaper publications and Wikipedia were also used for search of information in the public print. Review suggests that personality traits such as narcissism, openness to experience, dark triads, low self-esteem have all been linked to the concept of selfie taking. Recommendations have been made from the holistic point of view to intervene this growing danger.