How a baby shark became a fatality of an all-consuming selfie craze

The News Minute| August 19, 2014| 6.00 pm ISTSelfies seem be turning into a nuisance, of an almost dangerous kind.A Polish couple falls to death while trying to take a selfie on the edge of a cliff. A boy from Kerala, in an attempt to take a selfie from on top of a goods train, is electrocuted to death. A Mexican man dies after shooting himself accidently while trying to take a selfie with a gun, which he did not know was loaded.Accidents and tragedies caused in an effort to click a selfie are surfacing more frequently, pointing out the dangers of the trend.However, the selfie craze now seems to be also hurting animals, be it directly or indirectly.In a blog titled ‘The day a dozen parents and children killed a baby shark for a selfie’, published recently on the Dodo’s website, Joanna Zelman describes her experience of watching an insensitive crowd and its obsession with selfies at any cost.A bunch of people including children, in a beach of New York, got hold of a baby shark somehow and got busy taking pictures with it. The creature, being used as a prop, was held by its tail.When Zelman tried to interfere, the people who seemed to be annoyed by her at first and later ignored her.She writes, “A few heads turned my way, then returned back to taking photos. My cheeks began to burn as I stood in front of the man, my hands waving, blocking the cameras. "This shark is dying. You guys are literally killing this shark for a photo, can’t you see that?" I asked. A sea of cameras, iPhones and iPads stared back at me. The crowd waited for me to move so they could resume their important work of proving they saw a shark. Dead or alive, it didn’t matter. It’d be liked on Facebook and Instagram either way.”The shark, that was kept out of water for too long, seemed to be dead by the time it was released in the water.Tumblr has also compiled a list of ‘Tinder guys with tigers’; men who have uploaded pictures of themselves with tigers.According to a report in Social Times, the state of New York has banned selfies taken with tigers- which includes touching, patting or hugging the beasts.So, how long will it take for the selfie mania to drown before it finally consumes us? Is this the darker side of technology? Or it is just us to be blamed for using it irresponsibly?There is no doubt that selfies, as all other trends, is an exciting and popular one. It is anything but threatening, and most tragedies result as a consequence of our carelessness.