A new study from the India Institute of Medical Science has found that there have been at least 259 people who have died while taking selfies from October 2011 to November 2017.

The study was published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care and involved an international search of news stories using keywords like selfie death, selfie accidents, mobile death etc.

Selfie deaths mostly involve young male adults who put themselves into risky situations like this in India. (ameya murudkar-INstagram)

They found the average age for deadly accidents was just under 23, and that the majority of deaths involved males (72.5%) with 27.5 % females.

Most deaths were due to risky behaviour to get impressive photos for social media pages to get likes and followers.

The problem is world wide. Quoted in the CBC, Mike Danks, team leader for North Shore Rescue, a mountain search and rescue team based in Vancouver British Columbia said,  “We’ve seen a 30 per cent increase in the amount of calls that we’ve been getting in the last three years. We believe social media has influenced that.”

Drowning was the most common cause, although other risky behaviours have come from falling from skyscrapers or standing in front of trains.

Quoted in Newsweek, lead author Agam Bansal said “The selfie deaths have become a major public health problem. What worries me the most is that it is a preventable cause of death. Taking a toll on these many numbers just because you want a perfect selfie because you want a lot of likes, shares on Facebook, Twitter or other social media, I don’t think this is worth compromising a life for such a thing.