The Impact Of Digital Media On Society: Dangerous Selfie: Morality, Narcissism And Immortality
Dangerous Selfie: Morality, Narcissism and Immortality Abstract: As human beings, we have the instinct to consume the latest innovations of the digital industrial revolution in this material world in order to satisfy our ego through our distinctive appearance, and taking selfies seem to be one of the most prominent ways, regardless of whether it will threaten our lives when they will be taken in dangerous places and at the wrong time, this article explores the ethical policies of dangerous selfies, the role of giftedness, morality, narcissism and the quest for immortality.
Introduction
Regardless of the form, we as humans throughout the ages are always looking naturally for eternity, by leaving our traces in this world as drawings, inscriptions, pictures, sculptures, photographs etc. With the advancement of technology in recent years and the widespread use of mobile phones, this has led to the ease of taking digital self-images as called Selfie “Selfie: pronunciation: /selfi/ (also selfy). noun (plural selfies). Informal, a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. - (“selfie”)” (Taslim & Rezwan, 2017). Selfie’s culture has emerged as an everywhere tool for self-portrayal, making this modern phenomenon a worthy case of study “The pervasive use of selfies from presidents to astronauts and teenagers led Oxford Dictionaries to name “selfie” the word of the year in 2013, and has made selfies an increasing subject of academic inquiry, as researchers explore the implications for self-representation in a variety of contexts and methodological frameworks” (Roberts & Koliska, 2017). The Internet has become more important in everyone's life, one of the unique strengths of the internet is the ability to connect millions of users from all over the world in the global social media market, everyone is competing to attract others to achieve a certain goal, giving Selfie fans the ability to display their products and reach fans as quickly as possible “As this contemporary world is depending increasingly on technology and cyberspace, selfie is becoming a very powerful and communicative visual discourse that directly associated with one’s identity within this growing and strengthening cybercultural. ” (Taslim & Rezwan, 2017). To portray themselves in a different and attractive way, some people may risk their lives by taking selfies in dangerous situations that often cause undesirable consequences “As many as 137 individuals have been reported to be killed since 2014 till December 2016 while attempting to take selfies” (Hemank Lamba, et al. , 2017).
Dangerous selfie and morality This article reviews the selfies within the specific context of imaging oneself in a dangerous situation by inserting oneself in dangerous place and time without taking into account the consequences. In recent years, a lot of refusals and public reactions have been reported on dangerous selfies in the media. For instance, in 2015 following a series of selfie-related deaths, the Russian Ministry of Interior Affairs has launched a campaign to promote safe selfie-taking practices “The ministry has produced a practical picture booklet that advises selfie takers to avoid dangerous activities when taking photos, such as leaping across metro lines, posing for photos with tigers, playing Russian roulette, or scaling high-voltage transmission towers. ” (Daly, 2015).
In India in January 2016, 18-year-old Tarannum Ansari became one of the most recent victims, when she tripped and fell into the sea while taking a selfie at Mumbai's Bandstand Fort, she died of drowning, Mumbai police has since identified 16 no-selfie zones in the city, where they think taking selfies endangers lives. “Authorities in Mumbai have banned the taking of 'selfies' at a few select locations around the city because of a series of disturbing - and even deadly - incidents. ” (Rui, 2016). Similar cases have been announced in the United States “The U. S. Forest Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Nevada Department of Wildlife also felt compelled to issue a joint warning to tourists against taking bear selfies at Lake Tahoe’s Taylor Creek and said they’d shut it down to visitors if people persisted in taking these selfies; In New York, "tiger selfies" or photos taken with other big cats are prohibited by State law. ” (Elliott, 2015). As we increasingly tend to visualize and present every detail of our lives, the limits of what is socially and morally acceptable or what needs to be reproduced and published online are becoming increasingly controversial, raising the issues of taste, decency and ethics of selfies. So why are some people willing to risk their lives to take selfie? Dangerous selfie and narcissism When the sun goes down and the moon appears You go looking for love in the hall of mirrors Stephin Merritt (The 6ths). The portrayal of the self is not something new because males and females always enjoy the pleasure of watching their reflections, whether in water or mirrors, and thus support narcissistic myth. When compared to traditional self-portraits, the typical selfie captured by the modern technology such as mobile phones and webcams is more casual and natural and generates a social dialogue in the network being posted. “with the help of technology, the selfie has “evolved” into “a new visual genre” (Saltz), celebrated by the high-tech youth, who captures every moment of his life_ joys, sorrows, agonies, horror, trauma, funeral, laughter, excitement to be posted and shared online.
As a result, we have the celebrity selfie, the female selfie, the queer selfie, the dangerous selfie, the group selfie, the Asiad selfie, the Mars selfie, the accident selfie, the funeral selfie and so on. ” (LAKSHMI, 2015). Thus, selfie become an easy art for anyone to find an alternative way to show his talents and characteristics, what’s more, taking selfie has provided a great opportunity for those who have not had the opportunity to appear on the media before to do an exciting and inexpensive hobby as well as satisfy their obsession with self-promotion and exclusive access to social networking users. But some people go so far in terms of investing this opportunity in such a way as to take selfie in very dangerous situations “Persons taking selfie are so engrossed in the art that they lose track of time, place, and surroundings and endanger themselves. Crazy acts like taking selfie in front of an oncoming train, on edges of mountain cliffs, in front of pouncing bulls, on speeding motorbikes, near the oceans, on the banks of river canals on the top of trains and getting electrocuted by contact with live very high voltage wires and so on. Reports from many countries around the globe show that this is a global phenomenon. ” (Subrahmanyam, et al. , 2016).
Dangerous selfie and immortality “Philosopher Michel Foucault (1988: 18) wrote about something called technologies of the self, technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality. ” (Lindgren, 2017). When people first share a self-image, they usually feel intimidated by their appearance, worried about negative reactions. But if the results are positive, and if they are not pressured to publish only the types of images they know they will get well, they become more creative, spontaneous, and even more careful about their own images. That is to say, self-portraits became a continuous series of images that revealed a more complete and multifaceted representation of the photographer. The more people take selfies, the more they think, "How much more should I show about myself?". Thus, we can state that there are three types of dangerous selfies in terms of the quest for immortality: Selfies before death: In the case of selfies taken just before death, such as the case of Courtney Sanford, it was April 26, 2014, and she was out driving in North Carolina. Her favourite song came on the radio and made her smile and take instant selfie, driving a truck, causing an accident and she died “At 8. 33am on Thursday a post appeared on 32-year-old Courtney Sanford’s Facebook timeline which read: “The happy song makes me so HAPPY. ” At 8. 34am police were called to reports of a crash. ” (Withnall, 2014). Selfie of death: Although these selfies overlap with the previous category of selfies before death, they differ in terms of being taken in situations that can be considered serious and deadly, for example: Prabhu Bhattara, who was returning from a wedding in Odysha, a state in eastern India, had stepped out of his car to go to the bathroom when he saw a wounded bear and decided to take a selfie with him when he revived the animal and then the bear killed Prabhu “A man was mauled to death by a bear after he reportedly tried to take a selfie with the creature. ” (Sharman & Dubey, 2018). Selfie with death: The case of selfies taken with dead or dying people or are trying to commit suicide, for example: in September 2014, a Turkish police officer took a selfie while a person in the background committed suicide by jumping off the bridge on the Bosporus “A policeman has been caught taking a selfie as a man prepared to jump to his death from a bridge. ” (Best, 2014).
Conclusion
When life and death meet in the same picture, it will be a unique image to some individuals, but for others it will be a sad reminder to remind them of their past existence. Death is hiding behind the doors of fate. Dangerous selfie raises new ethical and moral challenges in the politics of self-presentation and the visual's morality on the internet. To take a selfie with self-inclusion in the wrong time and dangerous place and publishing it on the Internet because of both narcissism and the quest for immortality, requires a reorganization of the relationship between us and the digital world.
