Getting that perfect gram is not always so glam
We all know the struggle of getting that dreamy selfie: the lighting, the angle, the pose, everything these days has to be on point. But being on point nowadays sometimes comes with consequences. Painful consequences.
Gone are the days of the one pic wonder; we’re constantly snapping away our lives in order to put our best social media foot forward. Putting this foot forward however, is proving to do damage… to our wrists.
We’re not kidding when we say that taking selfies is causing more harm than meets the eye. In fact, doctors are warning millennials that they pose a great risk to the ‘selfie wrist’ which is on the rise worldwide, if they continue to take selfies in dangerous angles and environments.
The ‘selfie wrist’ is coined from the consequence of a selfie-induced trauma, which is created from injury as a result of trying to master a bomb pic.
Can you believe that University College Hospital Galway doctors in the Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery are having to treat four cases per week of a broken wrist due to traumas caused from taking a selfie.
The cases related to ‘selfie-wrist’ injuries include selfie-takers being in surroundings with hazards such as a trampolines, rocks and steps where they were not paying direct attention to their potentially dangerous environments. Broken wrists, fractures and collisions were ultimately the nasty consequence of these incidents. Tsk tsk!
Documented in the Irish Medical Journal, the above cases were related to ‘proprioception’ which basically means understanding where your body is in a certain space. Often, when someone takes a selfie, they are unaware of the space in which they are in as they are diverting their focus on their camera, rather than their environments and as a consequence, accidents can happen.
We’re all guilty of taking a #shamelessselfie but take note next time you’re reaching out to snap. You don’t want to wind up with an injury that finds you out of selfie action.
