It's easy to get a little too engrossed in your phone, we know that guys. People even go so far as to bury their noses in their smartphone on a date.
But at the very least, peel your eyes away from the screen when you're in a dangerous or precarious situation.
Another tragic death occurred on Tuesday on the outskirts of Hyderabad, where a young man perished for the sake of a TikTok video. The incident only came to light when police registered a case two days later.?
24-year-old Narasimhalu was visiting with his cousin Prasanth, when they decided to go out to the nearby lake. And while Narasimhalu was frolicking in the shallows in the background, Prasanth was busy recording a video for TikTok.
Eventually, Narsimhalu moved deeper into the lake, before his cousin realised what was going on. You know, because he was too focused on the video he was recording. Unfortunately for both of them, Narasimhalu couldn't swim.?
When Prasanth turned around and saw his cousin struggling to tread water in the deeper part of the lake, he rushed to climb out of it and run for help. Sadly, he wasn't able to make it in time to stop the guy from drowning. When locals managed to pull Narasimhalu out of the lake, he had already drowned.
It's another warning to teenagers, and in fact adults as well. Smartphones are fun, apps are cool, and going viral is pretty awesome, but none of it is worth putting yourself in peril for. And yet we keep doing it.?
Getty
India has the highest number of people dying for selfies each year. And though we've started to become paranoid about the dangers of smartphone addiction, we've focused more on the people playing games, and not so much on those focused on their front-facing cameras.
Is it up to social networks like TikTok to spread awareness of this. No, it's not their job to babysit users, but then again maybe it would help. Maybe something as simple as a reminder when you open the app, to be aware of your surroundings. 'Pokemon GO' and now 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' already do that. So maybe it's time other apps joined in too.