The intense desire to be seen as popular by vast numbers of complete strangers on the internet continues to inspire people to dangerous acts.
Many people have died in the pursuit of brief social media fame. This includes well-known Indian expats in California who often posted thrill seeking and daring photos. They once posted, “is our life worth just a photo?”. That proved to be a premonition after they both fell to their deaths from a very high cliff in Yosemite National Park, leaving only their camera on the cliff edge.
Chinese social media daredevil Wu Yongning shown in one of his many videos rocking back and forth on a ‘swegway’ hoverboard on a narrow ledge high on a skscraper. He died in 2017 after falling from a skyscraper in another social media stunt (YouTube)
The latest thrill-seeking social media effort occurred in Toronto when a young man climbed aboard a moving Toronto city bus, walked back and forth across the roof as it drove along, and then jumped off.
The video shows a wet street so the smooth metal roof of the bus may have been wet as well and if so likely slippery. Wet rubber soles and smooth steel roofs don’t result in good grip. One also may wonder as he stands at the front what would have happened had the downtown city bus been forced to brake suddenly for a cyclist, pedestrian, or other vehicle which would have tossed the young man off the bus onto the road in front from the substantial height. Although an unsafe idea to say the least, judging from his instagram account, probably not the most dangerous of his social media stunts.
- RCI- Jan 24/20: It’s Friday let’s do something really stupid
- RCI- Feb 6/20: More evidence of social media extremes
A similar bus surfing incident in Toronto was put on the net in November of 2018, although its likely it occurred months earlier and was not posted right away to reduce the ability of police to trace him.
Officials are now investigating the circumstance around this latest incident and lay charges if possible.
Police in the nearby city of Mississauga were also called out this weekend regarding people laying on railway tracks They found two young women were filming a dance video for social media, and were given a lecture about the danger and tickets for trespassing. Later that evening police were back to check on reports of three young men playing on the tracks and climbing barriers, but they had left before police arrived.
The pursuit of short-lived social media fame has led to any number of dangerous, aggressive, and foolish acts.
In 2019 Marcella Zoia became known as “chair girl” after tossing two small chairs from the 45th floor of a high rise in Toronto onto a busy street below as a social media stunt. She was later fined $2,000. (Facebook via CBC)
These include the famous Toronto ‘chair girl’, an incident aboard a southbound holiday flight where a passenger claimed he had COVID, resulting in the plane returning to Toronto at enormous expense, throwing coffee at strangers to film the reaction, short circuiting electrical outlets, and of course taking selfies and performing stunts in extremely dangerous locations, often from dizzying heights.
While some of these acts are merely foolhardy, the effort to seek social media fame through daredevil acts has led to many deaths.
A report in the Journal of Family Medicine in 2018, notes hundreds of selfie deaths, while noting that reporting is probably underestimated as it only studied English language reports, and that in many cases the circumstances around the death are listed as the cause but not the fact that those circumstances existed because of the desire to take an “exciting” selfie.
additional information- sources
- BlogTO: L O’Neil: Aug 24/20: Guy climbs on moving TTC bus to impress strangers on the internet
- BlogTO : Police in Ontario fed up with people making social media videos in dangerous places.
- NDTV- Oct 31/18:Indian techie seen in couple’s selfie minutes before she died at U.S park
- RCI: Final chapter in Chari Girl saga infuriates citizens, mayor
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.