Researchers (Ironically) Believe Phones Could Save People From Selfie Deaths
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
If you've been paying any attention to the news lately, then you know that selfie-related deaths are rapidly rising all over the world.
We've covered enough of these stories right here.
Now, some researchers are proposing an ironic safety plan. They want your smartphone to warn you if you're risking your life for the perfect pic.
What Does This Proposal Look Like?
Two wilderness medicine specialists in Ireland just published their proposal in the journal, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
It states very plainly that phones could verbally tell users when they are about to take a selfie in a place where they probably shouldn't, like the Cliffs of Moher where an Indian tourist recently died doing just that.
Photo by Malte Baumann on Unsplash
"Based on the GPS location or altitude of the tourist, we propose that there may be scope for providing verbal safety messages to individuals with their phone in camera mode, warning them that they are too close to a vertical drop," the article read.
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"In such cases, the camera function may be disabled until the person moves away from the dangerous no selfie zone," it continued.
Potential Downfalls
In order to examine this proposal at the most basic level, Reuters reporter Tamara Mathias talked to Indian professors. India has the highest rate of selfie deaths by far.
Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, an associate professor in India, believes this is because technology is still pretty new to most of India and the now affordable internet is forcing Indian youth to chase peer acknowledgment with risky selfies.
The issue with this proposal is that megacorporations would need to institute the rules into their applications. Kumaraguru gives Google Maps as an example.
Photo by henry perks on Unsplash
While Kumaraguru doesn't have any sway on the decisions Google Maps makes, he does want to make it easier for them to make the right one.
Kumaraguru, alongside his team at the university, created Saftie, an app that crowdsources user data on dangerous places.
While the researchers behind this proposal also mention counseling tourists via park rangers and wilderness medicine providers, Kumaraguru believes the issue of selfie deaths will never be fixed without the technology that gave us selfie deaths in the first place.
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Via Reuters
