Selfie-related deaths worldwide

Between 2016 and 2022, global selfie-related deaths declined as US remote workers surged, at a correlation of -0.855. The pairing is almost too on the nose: as people stayed home to work, they stopped dying while photographing themselves on cliffs. The pandemic took many things from us. It gave us, as compensation, a lower fatality rate on instagram-worthy ledges.

Global selfie-related deaths peaked around 100-130 per year in 2016 and declined to under 50 annually by 2022, driven by tourist-site barriers, smartphone safety warnings, and a slight moderation of dangerous-pose trends. US remote workers rose from around 9 million to over 27 million in the same window, with most of the growth from 2020. Both trends reflect the same period in which physical travel and outdoor risk-taking behavior were disrupted and redistributed, though the selfie-death decline began before the pandemic. The kitchen table was, unexpectedly, safer than the cliff edge.

Seven years of inverse movement can describe a decade in which people stayed closer to home and survived their phones in greater numbers. The home office and the cliff edge are not rivals. Both, however, have been affected by the same years.