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A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.

They are often casual in nature (or made to appear casual). "Selfie" typically refers to self-portrait photos taken with the camera held at arm's length, as opposed to those taken by using a self-timer or remote. A selfie, however, may include multiple subjects. As long as the photo is being taken by one of the subjects featured, it is considered a selfie.

"Selfie" is an example of hypocorism - a type of word formation that is popular in Australia where it was in general use before gaining wider acceptance.

The first known use of the word selfie in any paper or electronic medium appeared in an Australian internet forum on 13 September 2002 - Karl Kruszelnicki's 'Dr Karl Self-Serve Science Forum' - in a post by Nathan Hope. Although Hope later dismissed the notion that he coined the term, describing it as "something that was just common slang at the time, used to describe a picture of yourself", he wrote the following: " Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."

By 2013, the word "selfie" had become commonplace enough to be monitored for inclusion in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary, which announced it as the "word of the year" in November and gave it an Australian origin.

In August 2014, "selfie" was officially accepted for use in the word game Scrabble.

Early history

In 1839, Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, produced a daguerreotype of himself which ended up as one of the first photographs of a person. Because the process was slow, he was able to uncover the lens, run into the shot for a minute or more, and then replace the lens cap. He recorded on the back "The first light picture ever taken. 1839." A copy of his "first selfie" graces his tombstone at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1900, the debut of the portable Kodak Brownie box camera led to photographic self-portraiture becoming a more widespread technique. The method was usually by mirror and stabilizing the camera either on a nearby object or on a tripod while framing via a viewfinder at the top of the box. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, at the age of 13, was one of the first teenagers to take her own picture using a mirror to send to a friend in 1914. In the letter that accompanied the photograph, she wrote, "I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling."

During the 1970s, photographic self-portraiture flourished when affordable instant cameras birthed a new medium of self-expression, capturing uncharacteristically personal insight into otherwise conservative individuals and allowing amateurs to learn photography with immediate results. This practice transitioned naturally across to digital cameras as they supplanted film cameras around the turn of the millennium.

Origins and development of selfie-taking

Japanese selfie culture

The modern selfie has origins in Japanese kawaii (cute) culture, which involves an obsession with beautifying self-representation in photographic forms, particularly among females. By the 1990s, self-photography developed into a major preoccupation among Japanese schoolgirls, who took photos with friends and exchanged copies that could be pasted into kawaii albums. This inspired a young photographer, Hiromix (Hiromi Toshikawa), to publish a photo diary album called Seventeen Girl Days, which included a number of self-posing photos. One of these was a pioneering selfie that was shot while holding the camera in front of herself. She rose to fame in Japan when her album received recognition from camera manufacturer Canon in 1995.

The 1983 Minolta Disc-7 camera had a convex mirror on its front to allow the composition of self-portraits, and its packaging showed the camera mounted on a stick while used for such a purpose. A "telescopic extender" for compact handheld cameras was patented by Ueda Hiroshi and Mima Yujiro in 1983, and a selfie stick was featured in a 1995 book of 101 Un-Useless Japanese Inventions. While dismissed as a "useless invention" at the time, the selfie stick later gained global popularity in the early 21st century.

The digital selfie originates from the purikura (Japanese shorthand for "print club"), which are Japanese photo sticker booths, introduced by the Japanese video game arcade industry in the mid-1990s. It was conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho, inspired by the popularity of girl photo culture and photo stickers in 1990s Japan. She worked for a game company, Atlus, where she suggested the idea, but it was initially rejected by her male bosses. Atlus eventually decided to pursue Miho's idea, and developed it with the help of a leading Japanese video game company, Sega, which later became the owner of Atlus. Sega and Atlus introduced the Print Club (Purinto Kurabu), the first purikura, in February 1995, initially at game arcades, before expanding to other popular culture locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments, and bowling alleys. The success of the original Sega-Atlus machine led to other Japanese arcade game companies producing their own purikura, including SNK's Neo Print in 1996 and Konami's Puri Puri Campus (Print Print Campus) in 1997.

Purikura produced what would later be called selfies. A purikura is essentially a cross between a traditional license/passport photo booth and an arcade video game, with a computer that is connected to a colour video camera and colour printer, and which allows the manipulation of digital images. It involves users posing in front of a camera within the compact booth, having their images taken, and then printing the photos with various effects designed to look kawaii. It presents a series of choices, such as desired backdrops, borders, insertable decorations, icons, text writing options, hair extensions, twinkling diamond tiaras, tenderized light effects, and predesigned decorative margins. Purikura became a popular form of entertainment among youths in Japan, and then across East Asia, in the 1990s. These photographic filters were similar to the Snapchat filters that later appeared in the 2010s. Photographic features in purikura were later adopted by smartphone apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, including scribbling graffiti or typing text over selfies, adding features that beautify the image, and photo editing options such as cat whiskers or bunny ears.

Perhaps the first front-facing camera on a hand-held device was the Game Boy Camera, released in Japan in February 1998. The Game Boy Camera was an attachment for Game Boy. The 180°-swivel camera was specifically marketed to allow users to take self-portraits.

To capitalize on the purikura phenomenon in East Asia, Japanese mobile phones began including a front-facing camera, which facilitated the creation of selfies. The first front-facing camera phone was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999. It was called a "mobile videophone" at the time. It stored up to 20 JPEG images, which could be sent over e-mail, or the phone could send up to two images per second over Japan's Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) wireless cellular network. This led to a transition in Japanese selfie culture from purikura to mobile phones.

International popularity

Photos in the selfie genre have existed for much longer than the word. Selfie culture became popular in Japan and then other East Asian countries in the 1990s, starting with purikura booths and then front-facing camera phones. However, it was not until the 2000s that selfie culture was popularized outside of East Asia.

Outside of East Asia, the concept of uploading group self-taken photographs to the Internet, albeit with a disposable camera instead of a smartphone, dates back to a webpage created by Australians in September 2001, including photos taken in the late 1990s (captured by the Internet Archive in April 2004).

In the early 2000s, before Facebook became the dominant online social network, self-taken photographs were particularly common on MySpace. However, writer Kate Losse recounts that between 2006 and 2009 (when Facebook became more popular than MySpace), the "MySpace pic" (typically "an amateurish, flash-blinded self-portrait, often taken in front of a bathroom mirror") became an indication of bad taste for users of the newer Facebook social network. In 2009 in the image hosting and video hosting website Flickr, Flickr users used 'selfies' to describe seemingly endless self-portraits posted by teenagers. According to Losse, improvements in design-especially the front-facing camera of the iPhone 4 (2010), mobile photo apps such as Instagram and Snapchat led to the resurgence of selfies in the early 2010s.

The Sony Ericsson Z1010 mobile phone, released in late 2003, introduced to Western markets the concept of a front-facing camera, which could be used for selfies and video calls. These cameras became common on mobile devices, such as the iPhone 4 (2010). The iPhone 4, which adopted the front-facing camera feature from earlier Japanese and Korean phones, helped popularize the selfie internationally, outside of East Asia.

In 2011, the Instagram photo-sharing and social networking service introduced auto filters, allowing users to easily alter their photos.Initially popular with young people, selfies gained wider popularity over time. Life and business coach Jennifer Lee, in January 2011, was the first person to coin it as a hashtag on Instagram. By the end of 2012, magazine considered selfie one of the "top 10 buzzwords" of that year; although selfies had existed long before, it was in 2012 that the term "really hit the big time". According to a 2013 survey, two-thirds of Australian women age 18-35 take selfies-the most common purpose for which is posting on Facebook. A poll commissioned by smartphone and camera maker Samsung found that selfies make up 30% of the photos taken by people aged 18-24.

Selfies have also been taken beyond Earth. Selfies taken in space include those by astronauts, an image by NASA's Curiosity rover of itself on Mars, and images created by an indirect method, where a self-portrait photograph taken on Earth is displayed on a screen on a satellite, and captured by a camera.

In 2011, a crested black macaque pressed a trigger on a wildlife photographer's camera, set up in an Indonesian jungle for that specific purpose; when the camera was later recovered it was found to contain hundreds of selfies, including one of a grinning female macaque. This incident set off an unusual debate about copyright. In 2016, a federal judge ruled that the monkey cannot own the copyright to the images.

In October 2013, Imagist Labs released an iOS app called Selfie, which allows users to upload photos only from their front-facing smartphone camera. The app shows a feed of public photos of everyone's selfies and from the people they follow. The app does not allow users to comment and users can only respond with selfies. The app soon gained popularity among teenagers.

In describing the popularity of the "foot selfie", a photograph taken of one's feet while sunbathing at exotic locations, The Hollywood Reporter said that it could be "2014's social media pose to beat".

In January 2014, during the Sochi Winter Olympics, a "Selfie Olympics" meme was popular on Twitter, where users took self-portraits in unusual situations. The spread of the meme took place with the usage of the hashtags #selfiegame and #selfieolympics.

In April 2014, the advertising agency iStrategyLabs produced a two-way mirror capable of automatically posting selfies to Twitter, using facial recognition software.

Social media popularity

Social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat encourage people to take selfies with features like Geofilters, hashtag linking of related topics, and picture stories. Geofilters allow people to take selfies with overlays that can be comedic, altering your selfie image with the ability to show where you are located. In September 2017, Instagram boasted 500 million daily active users of its self-promotion, selfie-sharing app and 800 million monthly active users. Snapchat reports 178 million daily active users of its service. As of July 2017, in order of popularity, the four most popular social networking services are Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Selfies have been popular on social media. Instagram has over 53 million photos tagged with the hashtag #selfie. The word "selfie" was mentioned in Facebook status updates over 368,000 times during a one-week period in October 2013. During the same period on Twitter, the hashtag #selfie was used in more than 150,000 tweets.

The appeal of selfies comes from how easy they are to create and share, and the control they give people over how they present themselves. Many selfies are intended to present a flattering image of the person, especially to friends whom the photographer expects to be supportive. Those selfies would be taken on trips, during activities that are considered interesting or as a group selfie with interesting or attractive people. However, a 2013 study of Facebook users found that posting photos of oneself correlates with lower levels of social support from and intimacy with Facebook friends (except for those marked as Close Friends). The lead author of the study suggests that "those who frequently post photographs on Facebook risk damaging real-life relationships." The photo messaging application Snapchat is also largely used to send selfies. Some users of Snapchat choose to send intentionally-unattractive selfies to their friends for comedic purposes.

Posting intentionally unattractive selfies has also become common in the early 2010s-in part for their humor value, but in some cases also to explore issues of body image or as a reaction against the perceived narcissism or over-sexualization of typical selfies.

The practice of taking selfies has been criticised not only for being narcissistic, preventing assessment and appreciation of what is happening in the present, but also for being mindlessly conformist behaviour, when everyone does what everyone else is doing, "like that scene in The Life of Brian - where the crowd gathers outside Brian's window and enthusiastically chants in unison: 'Yes, we're all individuals! ... Yes, we are all different!'" However, this has been disproved by more nuanced and detailed analyses of the genre.

The pop-up museum called The Museum of Selfies is scheduled to open its doors to all selfie lovers in the year 2018 in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles County, California.

Gender roles, sexuality, and privacy

Selfies are popular among both genders; however, sociologist Ben Agger describes the trend of selfies as "the male gaze gone viral", and sociologist and women's studies professor Gail Dines links it to the rise of "porn culture" and the idea that sexual attractiveness is the only way in which a woman can make herself visible. Feminist writer Megan Murphy has pointed out that posting images publicly or sharing them with others who do so may have a dramatic effect in the case of revenge porn, where ex-lovers post sexually explicit photographs or nude selfies to exact revenge or humiliate their former lovers. Nonetheless, some feminists view selfies as a subversive form of self-expression that narrates one's own view of desirability. In this sense, selfies can be positive and offer a way of actively asserting agency.

In 2013 in the blog , author Erin Gloria Ryan criticized selfies, believing that the images they often portray, as well as the fact that they are usually posted to social media with the intent of getting positive comments and "likes", reinforce the "notion that the most valuable thing [a young woman] has to offer the world is her looks." The Jezebel post provoked commentary on Twitter from users arguing that selfies could be positive for women by promoting different standards of beauty. Media critic Jennifer Pozner saw selfies as particularly powerful for women and girls who did not see themselves portrayed in mainstream media.

Research shows that there is a particular difference between perspectives of youngsters and adults. "While not all representative of all young people's experiences of digital picture-sharing cultures, these discussions point to a significant gap between young people's own interpretations of their ordinary or everyday digital practices and adults' interpretations of these practices."

Celebrity selfies

Many celebrities - especially sex symbols - post selfies for their followers on social media, and provocative or otherwise interesting celebrity selfies are the subject of regular press coverage. Some commentators, such as Emma Barnett of The Telegraph, have argued that sexy celebrity selfies (and sexy non-celebrity selfies) can be empowering to the selfie-takers but harmful to women in general as they promote viewing women as sex objects. Actor and avid selfie poster James Franco wrote an op-ed for The New York Times defending this frequent use of selfies on his Instagram page. Franco defends the self-portrait stating they should not be seen as an egocentric act, but instead a journalistic moment as the selfie "quickly and easily shows, not tells, how you're feeling, where you are, what you're doing" in a way that a text communication might fail to convey.

A selfie orchestrated during the 86th Academy Awards by host Ellen DeGeneres was, at one point, the most retweeted tweet ever. DeGeneres said she wanted to pay homage to Meryl Streep's record 18 Oscar nominations by setting a new record with her, and invited twelve other Oscar celebrities to join them, which included Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Channing Tatum, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong'o, Jared Leto, and Jennifer Lawrence. The resulting photo of the celebrities broke the previous retweet record within forty minutes, and was retweeted over 1.8 million times in the first hour. By the end of the ceremony it had been retweeted over 2 million times, less than 24 hours later, it had been retweeted over 2.8 million times. It beat the previous record, 778,801, which was held by Barack Obama, following his victory in the 2012 presidential election.

Politician selfies

U.S. President Barack Obama made news headlines during Nelson Mandela's memorial celebration at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium with various world leaders, as he was snapped taking a selfie and sharing smiles with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and later with British Prime Minister David Cameron, as they gathered to pay tribute to Mandela. The decision to take the selfies was considered to be in poor taste, as British political columnist Iain Martin critiqued the behaviour as "clowning around like muppets". The photos also depict the First Lady Michelle Obama sitting next to them looking "furious and mortified". Despite the criticism, Roberto Schmidt, the photographer who captured the photos taken at the celebration, reported to the Today show it was taken at "a jovial, celebratory portion of the service".

In India, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi posted a selfie on Twitter after voting in Gandhinagar, India. The post became a major trending item on the micro-blogging platform. In July 2014, the Swiss government became the first to take and post a picture of an entire national government (the picture was taken by one of the seven members of the government, Alain Berset).

The Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is known to pose for several selfies in public appearances, once even claiming to have posed for "over 1500 selfies" in three days, during which he estimated to have greeted about four thousand people - the social media phenomenon has coined the term "Marcelfie" to refer to these. Most notably, the President posed for a selfie with Prime Minister António Costa in the Paris City Hall, during the Portugal Day ceremonies there on 10 June 2016.

Group selfies

In January 2014, Business Insider published a story referring to selfies of groups as usies. A photograph of Pope Francis with visitors to the Vatican was called an usie by The Daily Dot, and TMZ has used the term to describe a selfie taken of celebrity couple Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

The term "groufie" has been trademarked by Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei Technologies in China, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S. The word was introduced during the launch of its Ascend P7 smartphone in 2014. Huawei defines the groufie as a panoramic selfie involving multiple subjects, as well as background scenery, captured using the front facing, 8- megapixel camera and panorama capabilities of its phones.

Another term for a group selfie is "wefie", originally trademarked by Samsung in the U.S. to promote the wide-angle lens of its NX series of cameras.

Accessories

Devices for holding smartphones or compact cameras called selfie sticks are often used when taking group selfies, as they allow a wider, more panoramic image capture.

Another option for taking selfies from a distance beyond one's arm is a drone. Selfies made with a drone are also called dronies. The concept of taking a dronie first entered the mainstream in 2014 and coincided with a relatively sudden increase in the availability of relatively cheap, camera bearing multicopter drones. In 2014, the Nixie drone was designed to serve as a "personal photographer".

Psychology and neuroscience

First, Farace, van Laer, de Ruyter, and Wetzels describe three photography techniques with which people are more likely to engage: first-person perspective, action, and person rather than 'just' selfies and adaptation into artfulness.

According to a study performed by Nicola Bruno and Marco Bertamini at the University of Parma, selfies by non-professional photographers show a slight bias for showing the left cheek of the selfie-taker. This is similar to observations of portraits by professional painters from many historical periods and styles, indicating that the left cheek bias may be rooted in asymmetries of brain lateralization that are well documented within cognitive neuroscience. In a second study, the same group tested if selfie takers without training in photography spontaneously adhere to widely prescribed rules of photographic composition, such as the rule of thirds. It seems that they do not, suggesting that these rules may be conventional rather than hardwired in the brain's perceptual preferences.

A 2016 study examining the relationship between personality and selfie-posting behaviors suggests that extroversion and social exhibitionism positively predict frequency of selfie posting, whereas self-esteem is generally unrelated to selfie-posting behaviors.

Selfitis is a condition described as the obsessive taking of selfies, although it is currently not listed as a mental disorder in the DSM-5.

Obsessive taking of selfies and posting to social media has been found to be linked to many symptoms common to mental disorders. These include narcissism, low self-esteem, loneliness, self-centeredness, and attention-seeking behaviors.

Injuries while taking photos

The first known selfie-related death occurred 15 March 2014, when a man electrocuted himself on top of a train.

2014, 'The Year of the Selfie', was also the year Makati and Pasig, 'Selfie Capital of the World', saw their first selfie-related death when a 14-year-old girl fell from the 3rd floor staircase landing to the 2nd.

In 2015 it was reported that more people had been killed taking selfies that year than by shark attacks. Other publications have debated that analysis. Takers of selfie photographs have fallen to their deaths while losing their balance in a precarious position, and others have been wounded or killed while posing with handguns which have accidentally fired.

Concerned about the increasing number of incidents in Russia where attempts to set up a unique selfie had led to injuries and deaths, the Russian Ministry of the Interior released a "Selfie Safety Guide" in 2015 that warned selfie enthusiasts about some common dangerous behaviors. Moscow, Russia's most active selfie-taking city, is estimated to have 8 selfie-takers per 100,000 people, and ranks 301st among cities worldwide.

A 2015 study showed that 20% of young Britons had taken selfies while driving a car. Manchester has the highest amount of selfie-takers per capita in Great Britain with 114 per 100,000 people, and ranks 7th internationally. The Italian chief of state police expressed concern over the same phenomenon in Italy on the occasion of the launch of a short film with the title "Selfie". Milan is the 8th most active selfie-taking city in the world with 108 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.

According to Professor Amanda du Preez, there are least three types of selfie pictures documenting death, selfies unknowingly taken before death, where the taker's death is almost witnessed, or where the taker stands by while someone else dies.

In 2019 a teen left an imprint on the ground where he landed after falling more than four stories while attempting to take a selfie with his friends on a bridge in Dallas, TX. He had multiple serious injuries, but he survived.

Facial distortion effect

Because they are typically taken much closer to the subject's face than a conventional photograph, phone selfies tend to distort the subject's face. When conventional photographers take head shots, they typically use a narrower lens (or zoom in) and stand at a normal distance, instead of getting physically closer to the subject's face. Front-facing cell phone cameras, on the other hand, feature wide-angle lenses and are held closer to the face, since the human arm is only so long. This results in extension distortion, where objects closer to the camera appear much larger than they actually are. Though this distortion has a slimming effect, it also exaggerates the auto-photographer's nose and chin, since those parts are closer to the camera than the rest of the face.

A study published by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has found that selfies have altered people's perception of their faces to the point where they increased the demand for rhinoplasties (nose jobs). Forty-two percent of surgeons surveyed have noticed that patients are seeking surgeries to improve their appearance in photographs, especially selfies taken at close distance. Another study found that selfies taken at a distance of 12 inches (30 cm) can exaggerate nasal size by as much as 30%, and recommends that people take pictures from a standard distance of 5 feet (1.5 meters) to minimize perspective distortion.

References

External links

Media related to selfies at Wikimedia Commons

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A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.

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How have people died from selfies in the past 2 years?

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How have people died from selfies in the past 2 years?

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of serious injuries and deaths in which one or more subjects of a selfie were killed or injured before, during, or after taking a photo of themselves, with the accident at least in part attributed to taking the photo.

The United States Department of Transportation estimated that in 2014, the so-called "year of the selfie", 33,000 people were injured while driving and using a cell-phone in some fashion, which can include talking, listening, and "manual button/control actuation". A 2015 survey by Erie Insurance Group found that 4% of all drivers admitted to taking selfies while driving.

The Washington Post reported in January 2016 that "about half" of at least 27 "selfie related" deaths in 2015 had occurred in India. There is no official data on the number of people who died taking selfies in India, but reports show from 2014 to August 2016 that there have been at least 54 deaths in India while taking selfies. The Indian Ministry of Tourism asked states to identify and barricade "selfie danger" areas, its first national attempt to deal with the selfie deaths. Mumbai Police identified at least 16 danger zones after a man drowned attempting to save a selfie-taker. No-selfie zones were also established in certain areas of the Kumbh Mela because organizers feared that bottlenecks caused by selfie-takers could spark stampedes.

A 2018 study of news reports showed that there were 259 selfie deaths in 137 incidents reported globally between October 2011 and November 2017, with the highest occurrences in India, followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan. The mean age was 23 years old, with male deaths outnumbering female about three to one.

From January 2008 to July 2021 it was estimated that there were 379 people who died in selfie related accidents.

1

0

Transport

A 22-year-old man was trying to recreate a scene from his favorite movie Barking at the Stars by running in front of a train, beating it and being hailed a hero. As he ran in front of the train, he tried to take a selfie to document the scene. He was killed instantly when the express train hit him at full speed in the village of Laćarak near the town of Sremska Mitrovica.

August 2015

1

0

Fall

A man was discovered with his phone and selfie stick at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff at Long Men waterfall in Zhejiang. Based on photographic evidence on his phone, police speculated that he lost his footing while taking a selfie and fell to his death. It was not known when he died or how long his body had been there.

September 2015

1

0

Fall

17-year-old student Andrey Retrovsky from Vologda fell to his death attempting to take a selfie while hanging from a rope from a nine-story building. The rope snapped. Retrovsky was known for taking 'extreme' selfies and posting them to his Instagram account drewsssik.

2

0

Animal

A businessman at a wildlife park in Rongcheng, Shandong, was drowned by a walrus after taking several selfies and videos with the animal. A zookeeper was also drowned in the same incident after attempting to save the man.

13 June 2017

1

0

Electrocution

A 15-year-old boy was killed when he tried to climb onto a high-voltage wire to take a selfie in Perm Krai.

16 June 2017

1

0

Electrocution

A 17-year-old boy was killed when he took a selfie near a high-voltage electric cable in Novosibirsk Oblast.

17 June 2017

1

0

Electrocution

A 14-year-old girl was electrocuted when taking a selfie on a railway bridge in Moscow Oblast when her head accidentally touched the overhead wires.

9 March 2019

0

1

Animal

A woman was mauled by a jaguar in Arizona after entering a zoo enclosure to take a selfie. She received non-life-threatening injuries, including a large gash on her arm.

Note: Although widely reported as a selfie incident, the victim claimed in a later CBS News interview that she was not taking a selfie, and did not enter the zoo enclosure-she only reached across a below-waist-height concrete planter in front of a much higher fenced enclosure-misleadingly termed "climbing" or "crossing" a barrier.

14 May 2020

1

0

Fall

A 15-year-old Italian girl who was on vacation took a selfie on a balcony and accidentally fell four storeys to her death.

12 December 2020

1

0

Fall

A 38-year-old woman fell 80 meters and died at a popular tourist photo spot in The Grampians in Victoria. According to authorities, she jumped over a safety barrier and tripped off the cliff edge.

12 January 2021

1

1

Transport

An accident in Maribor occurred when two minors were taking selfies in front of an oncoming train between two tracks. One was killed and the other was hospitalized from shock. Both were photographed between the tracks next to the railway platform in front of a train coming from the direction of Ljubljana at high speed.

16 May 2021

9

11

Drowned

A boat overloaded with 20 people in a reservoir in Central Java capsized when the passengers all suddenly moved to one side of the vessel, which was helmed by a 13-year-old, to take a group selfie. Nine of the passengers drowned, including two children.

10 July 2021

1

0

Fall

32-year-old influencer Sofia Cheung died after slipping and falling 5 meters in the Ha Pak Lai nature park, while she was taking a selfie with friends at the edge of a waterfall. Her Instagram account featured photos of her outdoor adventures, including scaling cliffs and mountaintops.

11 July 2021

11

0

Electrocution

Eleven people died in Rajasthan after being struck by lightning near a watchtower at the Amer Fort. According to police, some of the victims were taking selfies near the tower.

28 July 2021

1

0

Fall

22-year-old Danish YouTuber Albert Dyrlund died after falling 200 meters from Forcella di Pana while he was recording for his channel.

6 August 2021

1

0

Fall

A 19-year-old Dutchman died after falling from the Liberty Bridge in Budapest. It was reported that he climbed the bridge to take a selfie.

24 January 2022

1

0

Fall

A hiker in Arizona slipped and fell approximately 700 feet (210 meters) to his death while trying to take a photo in Lost Dutchman State Park near the Superstition Mountains.

28 August 2022

6

0

Drowned

Six members of the same family drowned at Ramdaha Falls in Chhattisgarh. Two teenage sisters attempted to take a selfie but slipped into the water. Four other relatives tried to save them but they all drowned.

10 November 2022

1

0

Fall

A man filming himself on the back of a semi-trailer truck was killed when the driver, unaware of the man on his trailer, drove under an underpass.

27 December 2022

1

0

Fall

A 45-year-old New Zealand tourist slipped and fell 10 meters to his death while taking a selfie from an opened carriage door on the Thai-Burma railway.

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List of selfie-related injuries and deaths - Wikipedia

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This is a list of serious injuries and deaths in which one or more subjects of a selfie were killed or injured before, during, or after taking a photo of themselves, with the accident at least in part attributed to taking the photo.

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Everything you need to know about selfies!

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Everything you need to know about selfies!

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Source: http://www.henry4school.fr/Sciences/selfies.htm

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A selfie "is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They are usually flattering and made to appear casual.

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How to take a selfie or make a self-portrai

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How to take a selfie or make a self-portrai

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Selfie (where I want to be) - Lesson Plan

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http://www.dickblick.com/lesson-plans/selfies-exactly-where-i-want-to-be/ Creating self portraits is a snap with this easy technique! Facial proportions and features are traced onto clear film, then layered over a background of a student's own choosing - a location where she or he would most like to take a "selfie."

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What does selfies say about

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What do you think of those reasons?
Would they stop you from taking selfies?

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NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we first experience self-consciousness. This is the exact moment when an individual becomes aware of himself or herself as an object. What happens next is that we start to compare ourselves to the ideal standards we see on TV and other media outlets. This results in more and more people feeling anxious because they do not feel good about themselves. Ultimately, unattainable beauty standards can have a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Taking selfies is a modern social phenomenon. While it is usually a lot of fun, it can feed a young person's obsession with their self-image. Selfies may also lead us to reveal more about ourselves than we intended.
| SEE ALSO: The Social Phobia|

A Selfie: A possible danger

Posing for a selfie - a self-portrait taken with a camera phone - can be quite appealing for many. However, most people are unaware of the possible risks involved. People often take selfies to show off certain activities or places, but rarely consider how much personal information they are sharing, and who they are sharing it with.

Let's consider some situations where a person might accidentally share information they didn't intend to by posting selfies on social media, and other risks.

8 Selfie Dangers People Normally Overlook

1 - A Selfie Reveals Your Location

Often the purpose of a selfie is, at least in part, to show off visiting a location or a famous landmark. It's lots of fun to capture memories when you go on outings. However, posting these photos instantly through social media platforms, such as Instagram, allows anyone who can view your profile to know exactly where you are at that time. This could attract unwanted attention or even help stalkers find your location. This is not likely to be a problem for most people, but there are all sorts of reasons that you might want to keep your location private.

2 - A Selfie Gives Out Personal Information

People often take selfies with friends or celebrities. In this situation you have to consider if the other people in the photograph are happy with it being shared on social media for anyone to see. Sometimes people will be less happy with that than you might expect! Always ask permission from the other people in the photograph before posting it.

3 - A Selfie Shows What People Look Like

Whenever you post a selfie on the Internet, you are not only giving out personal information, you are also letting others know what your friends and family members look like. While this is usually fine, it can give opportunities to identity thieves. Selfies reveal a lot about a person's physical appearance and other personal descriptions such as clothing and style preferences. All of this information can be useful to an identity thief.

4 - A Selfie Sends the Message that "You Are Not Home"

More often than not, selfies are taken in interesting places away from home. When this is obviously the case, it becomes easier for a criminal to predict the times you are not home. This information can be used it as an opportunity to break into your house. Social media has made life a lot easier for many people including burglars! The wealth of information saves them from a lot of hard work. Again, selfies are usually a lot of fun, but be cautious about the information that you broadcast.

5 - A Selfie Shows Actions People Do

There are all sorts of situation in which people take selfies. For example, someone might take a selfie while out clothes shopping, asking for feedback on an outfit they are trying on. Others like to take selfies at the gym, showing off all the hard work they have put into improving their physical appearance. Whether it is shopping, working out, or anything else, you are telling the world all about your hobbies and interests. Is this information you would like a future employer or collage applications board to know about? It is worth thinking twice before posting selfies.

6 - A Selfie Reveals Others' Identities

Selfies can be taken with friends, co-workers or even strangers. They can display all the different kinds of relationships you have, perhaps your new romantic interest. You may want to be careful to find out if other people in the photograph are comfortable with it being posted online. Also, if you're taking a selfie at work and your colleagues have nametags that display their full names, you may be exposing them to identity theft or even blackmailing. Therefore it is better to avoid wearing a nametag whenever you are posing for a selfie.

7 - A Selfie Gives Out Details about Your Family

Selfies with family members can also be an issue. They might think that sharing details about their lifestyles in public could affect the family's reputation. Sometimes quality time spent with your family is not meant to be shared with everyone online. Even photos that don't include family members might still affect them. If you are in the family home taking selfies be observant of your surroundings.

8 - Taking a Selfie Can Become Addictive

Some mental health professionals believe that taking selfies can become an obsession, especially for people who suffer from body image disorders. Sometimes people try to tweak their looks by downloading mobile applications for getting the perfect selfie result. This sort of obsession with modifying appearance, alongside unobtainable beauty standards propagated by media and fashion, can eventually lead to some young people seeking plastic surgery.

Taking a Selfie Can Turn Deadly

Sometimes people can take the selfie phenomenon to deadly extremes. A case report shows that a British teenager once attempted suicide after he had failed to find the perfect light and pose for taking a selfie.

Taking selfies can get out of control, but there are some strategies people can follow to avoid being harmed or becoming extremely obsessed with the habit. For those who are taking too many selfies, they might start to think of taking less daily. Also, they ought to consider sharing them with close friends only and not with everyone else. People suffering from selfie-mania could also consider taking pictures of their work achievements rather than just focusing on their physical appearance.

Taking selfies is a lot of fun. However, it is important to not obsess over appearances. This can lead to overlooking other things that really matter. By taking selfies, some people are only looking for the attention and the approval of others. While a little bit of that is fine, it is easy to take it too far. However, if you are going to take part in such trends it is important to consider the implication of what you are putting out into the world. So remember to protect yourself against sharing too much information online.

For a bigger look at the topic, here is an introduction to cyber safety!

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Taking a Selfie? 8 Reasons to Think Twice About It - NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we first experience self-consciousness. This is the exact moment when an individual becomes aware of himself or herself as an object. What happens next is that we start to compare ourselves to the ideal standards we see on TV and other media outlets.

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Selfies are far more dangerous than you think !

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Selfies are far more dangerous than you think !

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to psychiatrist Dr. David Veal, seflies are more dangerous than you think ... far more dangerous.

"Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies.

"Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to help a patient to recognise the reasons for his or her compulsive behaviour and then to learn how to moderate it," he the Sunday Mirror.

Veal points to an extreme case, patient Danny Bowman, who allegedly spent up to 10 hours a day taking hundreds of selfies in a futile attempt to capture the perfect photo. He stopped attending school, lost "two stone" (around 28 pounds), stayed in his house for six months and fought with his parents. Eventually he tried to commit suicide.

"Danny's case is particularly extreme," said Veal. "But this is a serious problem. It's not a vanity issue. It's a mental health one which has an extremely high suicide rate."

Bowman was treated for OCD, technology addiction and Body Dysmorphic Disorder - a chronic mental health condition in which the sufferer obsesses over perceived flaws with their body.

Dr. Veal told the Sunday Mirror that "The common treatment is where a patient gradually learns to go for longer periods of time without satisfying the urge to take a photograph, along with therapy to address the root cause of the problem."

"This can be anything from low self esteem to problems with bullying in the past."

This is real: According to TIME, psychiatrists are beginning to consider a compulsion to take selfies "as a serious mental health problem."

A titled "Tagger's Delight? Disclosure and liking behaviour in Facebook: the effects of sharing photographs amongst multiple known social circles" from three business schools in Europe that people who post more selfies have more shallow relationships with people. Professors asked 508 Facebook users with an average age of 24 to rank how close they felt to friends, coworkers and relatives who also happened to be on the site. Then, they compared that data to the number of selfies the test subjects had posted.

The conclusion? "Increased frequency of sharing photographs of the self, regardless of the type of target sharing the photographs, is related to a decrease in intimacy" in personal relationships, wrote the authors.

According to Birmingham Business School professor and lead author Dr. David Houghton, "People, other than very close friends and relatives, don't seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves. It's worth remembering that the information we post to our 'friends' on Facebook, actually gets viewed by lots of different categories of people: partners; friends; family; colleagues and acquaintances; and each group seems to take a different view of the information shared."

So, seflies: narcissistic and correlated with a decrease in the intimacy of personal relationships. But dangerous seems like a stretch. Maybe the self-absorbed take more selfies, or those with fewer intimate relationships post them as a way of attracting attention. In cases like Bowman's, obsessive selfie-taking can be a symptom of pre-existing issues with self-esteem or more serious psychological disorders. And San Jose Mercury-News' Jessica Yadegaran, "psychologists say that in moderation, selfies are a feel-good and often creative way, particularly for teens, to chronicle their lives and emotions and express their personalities."

Clinical psychologist Lucie Hemmen that "There's a continuum of health and authenticity in what you shoot and post. A secure, mature person is going to post selfies that are spontaneous and not overly engineered or edited, and they're going to do it less often. A more insecure person is going to post staged or sexualized photos, and they're going to do it so much that they become consumed by it and the comments they receive."

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A Psychiatric Study Reveals Selfies Are Far More Dangerous Than You Think

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to psychiatrist Dr. David Veal, seflies are more dangerous than you think ... far more dangerous. "Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies.

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The dangerous art of the ultimate selfie

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The dangerous art of the ultimate selfie

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How far are you ready to go to take the best selfie ever? Read the article before answering the question.

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If 2014 was the year of the selfie, then 2015 took the art of self-photography to a new and dangerous level.

People are, quite literally, dying to take a picture of themselves.

In Russia this year there have been a handful of selfie-related fatalities, including the death of two men in the Ural Mountains who posed for a photo while pulling the pin from a hand grenade.

And, in June, a university graduate died after trying to take a selfie while hanging from a Moscow bridge.

Most recently a 17-year-old boy fell to his death from a rooftop as he tried to take his picture for his Instagram page.

He had previously taken a number of similar pictures of himself posing on high rooftops in the city of Vologda.

The problem isn't just limited to Russia. In the US recently a man died after shooting himself in the neck while taking a selfie.

At least 12 people have died this year while taking pictures of themselves making the practice more deadly than shark attacks, of which there have only been eight recorded deaths in 2015, according to tech news site Mashable.

The statistic is creating very real problems for governments.

In August, officials at the Waterton Canyon in Colorado were forced to close the park after several people were caught getting a little too close to the wildlife.

"We've actually seen people using selfie sticks to try and get as close to the bears as possible, sometimes within 10 feet [3 metres]," said recreation manager Brandon Ransom in a blog.

And, at Yellowstone National Park, officials issued a warning after five separate incidents of selfie-takers being gored by bison.

In Australia, a rock that looks like a wedding cake was fenced off because too many people were climbing it to take pre or post-wedding photos of themselves.

While in Russia, in response to the number of deaths there, the Interior Ministry launched a campaign warning that "self-photography could cost you your life".

"A selfie with a weapon kills," the brochure read. The accompanying poster campaign listed dangerous places to take a selfie.

15-minute fame

So why are some people willing to risk their life to take the ultimate selfie?

It may come down to pure bravado, thinks Lee Thompson - whose snap of himself on top of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero went viral in June 2014.

"People see pictures like mine and see how they spread across the world and see a way to make themselves famous for 15 minutes," he told the BBC.

A professional photographer, Mr Thompson admits that the picture he took was done as a publicity stunt for his travel company, Flash Pack. He did, however, get permission to climb the statue.

"I'm not a serial selfie-taker - this shot was to publicise my business. It was the shot I knew I had to get because people love selfies," he told the BBC.

He admits that the trend towards ever more dangerous selfies is "getting out of control".

"Be creative with your pictures but don't put yourself in danger," he advised.

Narcissists

According to research published by the Ohio State University, the pictures that people post on social media can tell an interesting story about their personality.

Hundreds of tests on people's social media habits were conducted for the study, which showed that people who post a lot of selfies also tend to score higher in traits of narcissism and psychopathy.

Lead researcher Jesse Fox said that, for many, a dangerous selfie is worth it for the number of likes and comments it will generate.

"Likes are a quantifiable way of measuring popularity and these days it isn't enough to just post a picture of yourself, because everyone is doing that. The more extreme it is, the more likely you are to stand out and get lots of likes and comments."

The rise of the selfie as an art form has not gone unnoticed by manufacturers such as Asus, which recently launched a phone dubbed the ZenFone Selfie, that as the name suggests, comes with a powerful camera.

But it too is sensitive to the issue of risk-taking selfies and its marketing of the device in France came with a poster campaign similar to that of the Russian government, pointing out places where taking a selfie would be ill-advised - including in front of trains, in cars and with bears.

Shark selfie?

Despite the publicity, there doesn't appear to be any let-up in the amount of death-defying selfies being taken, nor people's appetite to look at them.

A video on YouTube, compiling what it describes as the "25 most dangerous selfies ever", has been viewed over 20 million times.

It includes examples of a man taking a selfie while a bull charges at him, a man posing with a lion, someone taking a picture in front of a train and a woman taking a selfie of herself and her toddler while driving.

James Kingston's picture of himself hanging off a crane (above) came in at number three.

The list also features several self-portraits with sharks which had gone viral but which the video exposes as fakes.

Selfies may have become more dangerous than shark attacks but it seems that even the most intrepid self-shooter draws the line at a picture with a Great White.

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If 2014 was the year of the selfie, then 2015 took the art of self-photography to a new and dangerous level. People are, quite literally, dying to take a picture of themselves. In Russia this year there have been a handful of selfie-related fatalities, including the death of two men in the Ural Mountains who posed for a photo while pulling the pin from a hand grenade.

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Explain the positive use of selfies when learning a language.

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English learners can improve their pronunciation skills with training exercises used by singers. A smartphone with a camera can help, too.

These suggestions come from Michael Berman. He works in the Reading, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Linguistics Department at Montgomery College in the American state of Maryland.

Many students of a foreign language have trouble with word stress and intonation - raising and lowering the sound of your voice when you speak.

Michael Berman believes that such problems are not as serious as some people might think. Up to a third of his students, he says, have increased their ability to be understood by using two simple actions: slowing down and speaking up.
Common problem:
VOA Learning English's video series Let's Learn English tells about a situation that many English learners have probably experienced:
Anna: So, what's wrong? You look sad. Pete: I don't have a job. Anna: Sorry, I can't hear you. Pete: I do not have a job.
In the video, Anna asks Pete to repeat his sentence because she did not understand him.

And like many English learners, pronouncing words correctly is not Pete's problem.

The reason Anna does not understand Pete is because he is not speaking loudly.

In Pete's case, he is not raising his voice because he is sad about not having a job.

For some English learners, the problem of speaking softly is that the speaker appears to be showing weakness, says Berman. English learners may want to hide their mistakes by speaking quickly or softly. Or, Berman adds, they are bringing customs from their native language.

Whatever the reason, the result is this: English learners might not be understandable to a native speaker.

Berman says there are several different ways to successfully deal with these problems.
Tip #1 Use strategies that come from vocal music training
The first is simple: focus on the speed and volume levels of one's voice.

By thinking about slowing down and speaking louder, you can slowly change your speech over time.

In addition to thinking about how you speak, you can also use strategies from the music industry. In voice training, Berman says, singers will often train by opening their mouth wider than they usually do. This enables them to get a better tone and a better pitch when they perform.

Singers will often imagine their voice coming up on a string to a target 3 to 5 meters away. When English learners imagine their voices hitting a target at a distance, Berman says, they often improve their ability to speak louder.
Tip #2 Use Selfie Videos
In an earlier Education story, we discussed the value of self-testing.

Educational consultant Sarah Lynn said that testing yourself often is one of the best ways to learn. Lynn teaches at Harvard University's Bridge Program in Massachusetts.

So, how can you take this idea and use it to improve your pronunciation?

One way is by taking a selfie video, says Michael Berman.

All you need to do is place the electronic device 1-2 meters from where you stand. Then, record yourself speaking.

When you listen back to the recording, you can get valuable information about how you sound when you speak. You can share the videos with friends or your teachers. They can give you advice, too.

The value of this practice, adds Berman, increases because young people - often called "millennials - place a high value on the idea of posting videos on social media.

When millennials know their video will appear on social media, he explains, they are likely to repeat the performance many times before filming. "If you're talking about English intelligibility issues, that kind of repetition and practice and focus is amazing", Berman says.

So, give the vocal music and selfie video tips a try, and let us know how they work for you!

I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. ________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

pronunciation - n. the way in which a word or name is said

smartphone - n. a telephone that can be used to send and receive e-mail, connect to the Internet and take photographs

stress - n. greater loudness or force given to a part of a word in speech or to a beat in music

intonation - n. the rise and fall in the sound of your voice when you speak

focus - v. to direct your attention or effort at something specific

volume - n. the amount of sound that is produced by someone oe something

string - n. a long, thin piece of twisted thread that you use to tie things together or hang things

consultant - n. a person who gives professional advice or services to companies for a payment

intelligibility - adj. able to be understood

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Improve Your Pronunciation By Taking Selfie Videos

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English learners can improve their pronunciation skills with training exercises used by singers. A smartphone with a camera can help, too. These suggestions come from Michael Berman. He works in the Reading, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Linguistics Department at Montgomery College in the American state of Maryland.

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Comment on the behaviour of the people blamed in the document.
What would you do if you were there?

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This is What's Trending Today.

The Franciscan or Plata River dolphin is a threatened species that lives in the waters off the coasts of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

It is one of the smallest dolphins in the world, measuring only between 1.3 and 1.7 meters long. Their small size makes it easy for humans to approach them. The young dolphins are even smaller.

Photos came out recently showing people on a beach in Argentina, southeast of Buenos Aires, taking photos with two of these small dolphins.

At least one of them died, says Vida Silvestre, a wildlife foundation in Argentina.

People passed the dolphins around, taking photos. One of the dolphins eventually died because of dehydration.

Dolphins cannot survive very long without being in the water.

Even through dolphins are mammals and breathe air, they must be in water so their body temperature does not get too high.

Vida Silvestre says it is likely there are fewer than 30,000 of these dolphins alive. The major threat to the dolphins are fishing nets, not people. But on this day, people caused a death. And on social media, people are furious.

Their reactions are similar to what happened last year when the news came out that Cecil the Lion was killed in Zimbabwe. An American hunter killed the protected lion.

The people on the beach are being called " morons," and being accused of having "no brains." One person said she was "absolutely raging."

Here are some of the photos of the scene, and the comments people posted when hearing the news.

One person offered an idea for how to punish the beach-goers.

"Pass them around amongst ourselves until they also die."

And That's What's Trending Today.

I'm Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. What would you do about the people who took the dolphin from the water? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
___________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

scene - n. the place of an event or action

morons - n. a very stupid or foolish person

dehydrate - v. to lose too much water, become dry

raging - v. to have a strong feeling of anger that is difficult to control

furious - adj. very angry

mammal - n. a type of animal that feeds milk to its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin

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Trending Today: Selfies Kill Rare Baby Dolphin

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This is What's Trending Today. The Franciscan or Plata River dolphin is a threatened species that lives in the waters off the coasts of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. It is one of the smallest dolphins in the world, measuring only between 1.3 and 1.7 meters long.

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Explain what this trend is. Give your opinion.

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This is What's Trending Today.

A mannequin is a plastic model used in clothing stores.

A storeowner puts clothing on the mannequin to show shoppers how the clothing looks on the human body. Unlike a human being that moves, the mannequins stay in one place.

Starting in late October, videos with the hashtag #MannequinChallenge started coming out on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

The videos show people freezing in place while the camera moves around them. In the background, you sometimes can hear a song called "Black Beatles" by the hip-hop group Rae Sremmurd.

At first, high school students and college sports teams were doing the Mannequin Challenge. One story about the development of the video trend says a Twitter user posted the first Mannequin Challenge video on October 26. It showed some students at a high school in Florida.

Then it started to catch on. Hillary Clinton did a video on her airplane on November 8.

Just two days later, the NBA champion basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, visited President Barack Obama at the White House. While the players were there, they made a Mannequin Challenge video with Michelle Obama.

LeBron James was not perfect, however. He blinked his eyes when the camera passed by. He posed taking a selfie with Michelle Obama.

Other sports teams have done videos, too.

The Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League, or NFL, did a video that showed players talking to media members, along with other locker room scenes.

The challenge seems like fun for the participants and viewers. But not everyone is impressed by them.

For example, the Spanish national soccer team posted a video after its game with England on Tuesday night. During the game, England scored a goal and did the Mannequin Challenge on the field as part of its celebration.

Neither team succeeded in winning the game, which ended in a 2-2 tie.

One sports newspaper from Spain said the video was better than the team's performance on the field.

And that's What's Trending Today.

I'm Jill Robbins.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. Have you seen some other good Mannequin Challenge videos? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

blink - v. to close and then open your eyes very quickly

pose -v. to stand, sit or hold some position without moving, often as a model photograph or painting

scene - n. a view or sight that looks like a picture

participant - n. a person who is involved in an activity or event

viewer - n. a person who sees or looks at something

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This is What's Trending Today. A mannequin is a plastic model used in clothing stores. A storeowner puts clothing on the mannequin to show shoppers how the clothing looks on the human body. Unlike a human being that moves, the mannequins stay in one place.

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How are New Technologies used here and for what purpose?
What issue is raised here?

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Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a campaign on social media. The campaign is aimed at recognizing and celebrating the lives of girls. It is part of the Indian government's 'Save Daughter, Teach Daughter' movement, which began earlier this year.

The Indian leader used a radio broadcast last Sunday to urge people to publish photographs taken with their daughters on social media. He expressed hope that this could revolutionize the movement to save the country's girls. Within hours of his speech, thousands of people had tweeted the photos, known as selfies, with the hashtag #SelfiewithDaughter.

Sexual inequality has long been a major problem in India's highly patriarchal society. For years, Indian families have wanted boys more than girls. In India, many girls are considered inferior to boys. Some are even killed before they are born or as newborns because they are thought to be less desirable. For every 1,000 boys up to the age of six years, India has 914 girls.

It was not just fathers in India who answered Mr. Modi's call. Fathers in countries as far away as Sweden also posted pictures with daughters.

The prime minister said he got the idea for the campaign from Sunil Jaglan, a village leader in the northern state of Haryana. Haryana state has the country's worst gender inequality.

Sunil Jaglan launched a "Selfie with Daughter" competition last month. He began by posting a photo with his three and one-half year old daughter. During a recent visit to his village, Mr. Jaglan told VOA that his efforts resulted from his daughter's birth in 2012.

He says it all started when he passed out sweets to celebrate the arrival of his newborn daughter. He says his classmates and others thought at first he had a son. They could not believe that someone would give out sweets at the birth of a girl.

Sunil Jaglan wanted to express his thanks to the health care workers who helped the girl and her mother during childbirth. He says he offered the workers a nice tip as a way of saying thanks. But they refused the money, saying a girl's birth was not worth the same tip as a boy.

Mr. Jaglan is now the father of two daughters. He says he did not want them to grow up in such an environment. His efforts in the village of Bibipur have produced results: the number of girls to boys there is improving as the centuries-old customs begin to change.

Prime Minister Modi said a new hope is born by a campaign like the one in Bibipur, more so because it has begun in an area where the problem is most serious.

Mr. Modi said the government's campaign gets added strength when it is accepted by an individual, by society or by a village.

Social activists hope this campaign will not just be another public relations effort, but will support India's push to give its daughters the same positions as it sons.

I'm Marsha James.
Anjana Pasricha reported this story from New Delhi. Marsha James adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

selfie - informal n. a photograph of oneself shared on social media

patriarchal -adj. controlled by a man or men

inferior - adj. lower in quality

gender - n. sex; the state of being male or female
Are girls celebrated and recognized in your country? Is gender equality given to both girls and boys? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the comments section.

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India's Selfie Campaign Boosts Fathers, Daughters

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Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a campaign on social media. The campaign is aimed at recognizing and celebrating the lives of girls. It is part of the Indian government's 'Save Daughter, Teach Daughter' movement, which began earlier this year.

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This series introduces words that people use in everyday conversation.

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More people die from selfies than from shark attacks

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Can you describe those signs? Where would you see them

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Watch the video. Describe the selfie you think is the best and explain why. Be ready to present it to the class!

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Craziest selfies ever! These top selfies from the selfie olympics are some of the world's funniest and most extreme photos you will ever see. Today we look at the 33 best selfies from the Selfie Olympics! This is what happens when selfies turn competitive. These are some of the most creative selfies you will ever see!