Another Selfie Death

[PKR]

I held out hope for generation Z.. Oh well..


From PetaPixel

Teen Falls to Death Trying to Take Selfie at Yosemite Waterfall
Sep 10, 2018 Michael Zhang

Taking risks for extreme selfies has claimed another life, this time in California’s Yosemite National Park. A teenager hiker has died after falling off an 820-foot cliff while trying to snap a photo of himself.

The Times of Israel reports that 18-year-old Jerusalem resident Tomer Frankfurter was visiting the famous national park last Tuesday during a 2-month trip to the States with his mother prior to joining the Israeli army.
After reaching an area near the top of the 594-foot Nevada Fall, Frankfurter attempted to take a selfie near a cliff. He then apparently lost his balance, fell over the edge, and plunged an estimated 820 feet (250 meters) to his death, his mother told the Times.

More
https://petapixel.com/2018/09/10/teen-falls-to-death-off-820ft-yosemite-cliff-while-taking-a-selfie/

Some stats
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/n...ocial-media-instagram-twitter-facebook/107543

 

[xayraa33]

I held out hope for generation Z.. Oh well..


From PetaPixel

Teen Falls to Death Trying to Take Selfie at Yosemite Waterfall
Sep 10, 2018 Michael Zhang

Taking risks for extreme selfies has claimed another life, this time in California’s Yosemite National Park. A teenager hiker has died after falling off an 820-foot cliff while trying to snap a photo of himself.

The Times of Israel reports that 18-year-old Jerusalem resident Tomer Frankfurter was visiting the famous national park last Tuesday during a 2-month trip to the States with his mother prior to joining the Israeli army.
After reaching an area near the top of the 594-foot Nevada Fall, Frankfurter attempted to take a selfie near a cliff. He then apparently lost his balance, fell over the edge, and plunged an estimated 820 feet (250 meters) to his death, his mother told the Times.

More
https://petapixel.com/2018/09/10/teen-falls-to-death-off-820ft-yosemite-cliff-while-taking-a-selfie/

So sad.

These national parks are reputed to be a danger to life and limb and for total mysterious disappearances too.

But the real problem here might be a lack of common sense to the danger-risk to getting a great holiday snap ratio.

Some things are not worth taking a gamble on, very hard for youngsters to be able to discern that with limited life experience .

It very well could have been his destiny or fate in his short life.

 

[mbisc]

Shoo-In for Darwin Award

 

[PKR]

So sad.

These national parks are reputed to be a danger to life and limb and for total mysterious disappearances too.

But the real problem here might be a lack of common sense to the danger-risk to getting a great holiday snap ratio.

Some things are not worth taking a gamble on, very hard for youngsters to be able to discern that with limited life experience .

It very well could have been his destiny or fate in his short life.

I'm no youngster. When growing up and in college, my friends weren't that stupid. We also owned guns and there weren't any school shootings. Most of my friends got hurt riding motorcycles. And, that was a very small number. We learned from their mistakes or, were luckier.

Lots of things have changed.

 

[DwF]

I am not a fan of the selfie schtick but regardless this is horribly tragic. My heart goes out to his family. May Tomer RIP.

 

[xayraa33]

I'm no youngster. When growing up and in college, my friends weren't that stupid. We also owned guns and there weren't any school shootings. Most of my friends got hurt riding motorcycles. And, that was a very small number. We learned from their mistakes or, were luckier.

Lots of things have changed.

Taking calculated risks is a learned process, we all done it to certain degrees, especially as testosterone driven young men, where death at a young age was the furthest thing in our mind.

But these days a few parents in their 40s have raised or are raising their children with a lack of common sense to the realities or dangers and let them do what ever they feel like doing regardless of the repercussions or outcome.

Many think that actual parenting is not necessary any more and live in the easy peasy world of make-believe or are too self absorbed to give a care.

 

[Steve M.]

Let's not make a big deal out of this. People make mistakes. It has been happening since the dawn of time, and nothing has changed in that regard. Tennessee Williams accidentally choked to death on the top to his medicine bottle. A moment's inattention or something totally out of our control can take any of us out of the universe in a New York second. It's just how it goes. It really has nothing to do w/ photography.

 

[Out to Lunch]

I am not a fan of the selfie schtick but regardless this is horribly tragic. My heart goes out to his family. May Tomer RIP.

Let's not make a big deal out of this. People make mistakes. It has been happening since the dawn of time, and nothing has changed in that regard. Tennessee Williams accidentally choked to death on the top to his medicine bottle. A moment's inattention or something totally out of our control can take any of us out of the universe in a New York second. It's just how it goes. It really has nothing to do w/ photography.

These two posts reflect my feelings about this.

 

[rfaspen]

The teenage brain is not developed to make "common sense" decisions like an adult brain. A lot of recent research has described this, and it is simply the human condition. Teens take risks that adults would not. Part of that is indeed learned, part of it is primal and biological. Be the parent of a teenager and it will become quite clear.

One thing that always worries me with news such as this is the fate of National Parks and "wild places" in general, as well as freedom from litigation. Because people seem to be less willing to take responsibility for their own actions, there may be some unforseen and negative consequences.

Spend a few days in Yellowstone National Park during peak tourist season. You will be stunned by the things you see. Yellowstone is technically a "wilderness". Just because there are paved roads through this wilderness does not mean it is like Coney Island. I have watched perhaps 100s of near death incidents (and one I suspect that ended in death) as visitors do incredibly mind-numbing stunningly stupid things. And not just teenagers 😉

Anyway, I feel bad for the young person and his family. Tragedy is tragedy and I wish for less of it.

 

[maigo]

Adults can make these mistakes too.
Three adults (so called social media stars) died at Squamish, an hour north of Vancouver last July.

This same team was banned from Yellowstone last year for breaking rules about crossing park boundaries.

https://vancouversun.com/news/loca...r-squamishs-shannon-falls?video_autoplay=true

Site exposure on social media leads to copy-cat selfie takers at these high risk locations.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rugged-b-c-locales-are-a-magnet-for-selfie-seekers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tunalegs]

The artist of one of Japan's most popular comic strips died in 2009 after a fall from a cliff while out hiking. He wasn't a youngster. Deaths from falling while hiking are more common than most people realize, staying on the trails isn't just to keep the flowers safe...

 

[PKR]

Data Scientists Chart the Tragic Rise of Selfie Deaths
73 people died from selfies in the first eight months of 2016 alone.
by Emerging Technology from the arXiv November 15, 2016

Selfies became all the rage in the early part of the century, when smartphones with forward-facing cameras first hit the market. And their popularity has been explosive; last year, some 24 billion selfies were uploaded to Google Photos.
But this trend has been accompanied by a more tragic one. In 2014, 15 people died while taking a selfie; in 2015 this rose to 39, and in 2016 there were 73 deaths in the first eight months of the year. That’s more selfie deaths than deaths due to shark attacks.

More
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602862/data-scientists-chart-the-tragic-rise-of-selfie-deaths/


So, we went through three years of news archives, compiling every reported instance of a selfie-related death (that is, a death that was precipitated by taking a selfie). This is by no means a conclusive study (there are, no doubt, unreported cases), but it still gives us a visage into both the scope of the issue, and those who are affected by it. Here’s what we found: since 2014, 49 people have died while attempting to photograph themselves; the average age of the victims is 21 years old, and 75% of them are male.

More
https://priceonomics.com/the-tragic-data-behind-selfie-fatalities/



RESULTS: We found that the majority of selfie victims were students. Selfie-related injuries and deaths were reported most frequently in India, the US, and Russia. The most preferred site of taking selfies was the edge of the cliff. The most frequently reported event or accident type was falling from a height. Mostly multiple body parts were affected in selfie-related injuries and deaths. The most frequent causes of selfie-related deaths were multitrauma and drowning.

More
https://www.journalagent.com/travma/pdfs/UTD-83103-CLINICAL_ARTICLE-DOKUR.pdf

 

[ForestCap]

I'm no youngster. When growing up and in college, my friends weren't that stupid. We also owned guns and there weren't any school shootings. Most of my friends got hurt riding motorcycles. And, that was a very small number. We learned from their mistakes or, were luckier.

Lots of things have changed.

I don't think nothing has changed, there has been people doing risky things all the time through history. It's just you hear such news more because of faster communication (Internet).

 

[tunalegs]

To be fair, it's kind of hard to die from "selfie deaths" in eras before selfies existed. There were fewer traffic accidents in 1718 than in 2018, but I don't think that proves people in the 1700's were better drivers.



On the subject of kids being somehow worse now than ever, an uncle of mine, who worked in schools for a bit over two decades, and so probably knows more about this than most of us, told me that kids were much worse in the 1970s when he started, than when he left twenty some years later. Biggest difference he noticed was how often kids would show up to school drunk back then.

 

[Peter Jennings]

I think the real moral of this story is that selfies can be dangerous, not that generation-(?) is any stupider than generation-(?). You’re focused on your phone and the image on its screen, and not paying any attention to your surroundings. It can be discombobulating.

As a parent, the thought of this happening to my son is sickening. If I were to see him fall off a cliff like that, I might just jump off after him in grief.

 

[NickTrop]

Very tragic. A sad waste of a young life.

 

[BillBingham2]

To be fair, it's kind of hard to die from "selfie deaths" in eras before selfies existed. There were fewer traffic accidents in 1718 than in 2018, but I don't think that proves people in the 1700's were better drivers.....

I think it shows that horses are smarter than self-driving cars.....😱

B2 (;->

 

[coogee]

The Petapixel article doesn't particularly clearly articulate that he was probably alone and his 'selfie death' has been inferred from the circumstances.

He then apparently lost his balance, fell over the edge, and plunged an estimated 820 feet (250 meters) to his death, his mother told the Times.

She said that authorities told her that he tried to take a selfie but apparently slipped and fell from a height of 250 meters (820 feet).

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-teen-dies-after-falling-off-cliff-in-yosemite/

I find these 'selfie stories' are often more interesting for the way they reflect the modern news cycle. Regurgitated copy from 8th hand sources, little (any?) fact checking or investigation.

This article would once have been titled something like 'Teens tragic fall' and we would probably have wondered if he took his own life or fell.

Maybe there was CCTV or a witness who saw what happened? I don't know.

"The US National Parks Service Police did not respond to a request for comment."

There's also nothing I could see in the online source about him joining the army but it's in the Petapixel article. An assumption, or another source?

I'm not trying to make some deep and meaningful point, I just have little faith in the vast majority of online news sources. Especially with these 'zeitgeist' type stories that fit with 'the narrative.'

(I am mad as hell and not gonna take it any more of course)

 

[Contarama]

I wish women would take up streaking again 😀