Tuesday, 27 June 2023 | Mansi Bhambri | DEHRADUN
Making reels and clicking selfies has now become an addiction among youths, which has also led to deaths in some cases. Recently an incident was reported where two teenagers in the Laksar area of Haridwar district died after they climbed onto a railway bridge to take selfies and were run over by a train. Experts and authorities concerned point out that with the passing of time, such cases are becoming more common in the State. In today’s times young adults don’t understand the importance of their life, stated clinical psychologist Mukul Sharma.
Commenting on the recent incident of death while clicking selfies, Sharma said, “Social media and the internet have really affected the minds of young adults. In the last year, an average of 60 cases of deaths of young adults clicking selfies were reported from across the State. Many young adults nowadays don’t understand the importance of their life and have died trying to click selfies in unusual and unsafe places. Competition and status symbols are some factors that are encouraging young adults to get addicted to social media. Entering into social media is easy, but exiting from it is hard.”
He further stated that it’s the responsibility of parents to raise awareness among their children regarding the ill-effects of using social media. Parents must raise awareness among their children about using social media by setting an example, he opined.
The superintendent of police (Traffic) of Dehradun, Akshay Konde told this correspondent, “There are many young adults in the city who are addicted to reels and social media, which sometimes leads to death. To overcome such cases, the Dehradun traffic police formed a social media cell. In the social media cell, most of the cases we received were regarding rash driving and negligent behaviour of youth. We took necessary actions against them as per laws apart from providing counselling.”
