In the growing age of technology, and due to the fact that the majority of people now have camera phones, we’ve seen the rise of the selfie. Some find selfies to be vain and say that the current generation is too self-absorbed. While selfies can be controversial, they can also be downright badly timed; there are some situations where you definitely shouldn’t be talking selfies.

Last year in Peru a young man was attempting to take a selfie with a train from what he called ‘a safe distance’. That’s right, a selfie with a TRAIN. Like most would expect, this event didn’t go well. The man was standing too close to the train and the conductor stuck his leg out of the train and kicked the man in the head. It’s unknown whether the conductor was attempting to keep the man safe from injury or he kicked him in the head because he was annoyed and thinking ‘who would actually attempt to take a selfie inches from a passing train?’ The man was uninjured, but stated “I messed up.” The man did capture this event on video, and he made about a quarter of a million dollars when an advertisement company bought the right to advertise on the YouTube hit that gained about 35 million views; maybe this wasn’t too badly timed. I still wouldn’t recommend taking selfies with oncoming trains.

Another badly timed selfie you’ve probably heard about; the funeral selfie. The name can be misleading, but I can promise you that funerals are not supposed to be about FUN. You probably should be mourning the loss of someone who was close to you, or at least showing respect for the person whose funeral/viewing you’re at. You shouldn’t be taking pictures of your outfit – no, it doesn’t matter how cute it is. The Instagram tag ‘#funeralselfie’ has over a thousand posts, albeit some are spam, most are actually inappropriately timed selfies at funeral homes, churches, and graveyards. Pictures in the tag vary, from the most common of peoples’ funeral outfits to pictures that literally have the deceased person in the coffin in the background. Even Obama is guilty of the funeral selfie, during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service he was caught snapping a happy picture with the Prime Ministers’ of Britain and Denmark. Mr. President, please, no more funeral selfies.

We know there are some dumb criminals out there, but if you don’t want to get caught, you probably shouldn’t take selfies with the weapon you used, or take pictures on someone’s apple device that you just stole. Apple products are connected to iCloud, and any picture taken on devices are sent to the site, where the owners can see the pictures that are being taken, essentially sending your mug shot to the victim of robbery which they can send to police. Multiple robberies have been solved this way. In Sweden, when a burger joint was robbed, police found the suspects and confiscated their phones for evidence. The two teenage girls in question had taken a selfie in masks with the knife they used to rob the store. Needless to say they got caught. When a Florida gun enthusiast posted selfies of him and his fresh new gun, people were concerned, as the gun matched descriptions of the gun that had been used in a bank robbery. The police compared the picture of the man and gun to security tapes from the bank and he was arrested.

One of the scariest selfie trends: driving selfies. I can’t believe I share the road with you people. Yes, those actually exist, and all together there are about 25,000 posts tagged as ‘#drivingselfie’ on Instagram. If you doubt that people actually take selfies while driving, look up Courtney Ann Sanford. This North Carolina women fatally crashed her car head on into a truck seconds after posting a driving selfie to her Facebook. Another story involves two Iranian women who were filming themselves singing in the car, the driver was dancing and singing along, not paying attention to the road at all, when suddenly they collided with an object. They both made it out alive with only minor injuries, but imagine having to explain that crash to your insurance agency. It seems that some people forget that when you’re driving, you’re responsible for both your life and lives of the others around you. I can’t believe I have to say this – don’t take selfies and drive.

A lot goes through your head when you get pulled over. You may wonder what you’ve done wrong while red and blue lights flash behind you. You start coming up with excuses for the officer, but it seems that now people’s first instinct is to snap a picture with the police officer coming to their window. Yes – that’s also a thing. There are many pictures out there on the internet of people (generally teens) being pulled over with the officer walking up to the car or at the window in the picture. Good luck getting out of a ticket after explaining to a police officer that you were taking a picture of them because you thought it’d be funny.

It’s understandable. Everyone is taking selfies these days, and now new and creative selfies are being taken to edge out the ‘competition’ so people can have the coolest selfie out there. Is your cute self-shot really appropriate and worth the possible consequences? Here at the Bellarion we would like to remind you to take selfies safely and respectfully.