Don’t do it “for the ‘Gram”

[advrider]

Are we likely to take more risks to look cool on social media? A study by the University of California, Irvine, says yes, we are. While the study focused on hiking, the lessons learned may apply to motorcyclists as well.

This study used data from the National Park Service visitor use database, search and rescue data from the US National Park Service SAR Incidents 2017 Dashboard, and data from Twitter posts. Researchers looked for a correlation between the number of park visits, rescues required, fatalities, and social media posts.

“We analyzed the correlations between 180,216,375 recreational visits, 10,452,835 developed site stays, 1,956,935 backcountry visits, 183,744 tweets, 3,433 SAR incidents, and 181 fatalities that occurred in national parks during 2017,” they wrote.

Survey Says…

Not surprisingly, the more park visits there are, the more search and rescue operations for injured hikers. You’d expect this, given a certain number of accidents within a certain number of visitors. There was also a higher incidence of fatalities for backcountry visits than for recreational and developed site visits. Once again, no surprise there. The backcountry, by definition, is farther away from emergency services.

Interestingly, social media use was an even better predictor of how many people were going to get into trouble. The strongest correlation was between Twitter posts, incidents requiring rescue, and fatalities. In other words, the more people posted “Hey, y’all watch this” on Twitter, the more likely they were to get hurt, or even killed. “…Social media may be associated with SAR incidents via users motivating others to obtain photos or videos through risky or dangerous means,” says the study.

What About Motorcycles?

Adventure riders are less likely to hang over a cliff, snap a selfie, and plummet to our doom like Wile E. Coyote. But many of us do bring a camera along for the ride. A quick YouTube search will show you many motorcycle videos involving speeding, stunting, and other risky maneuvers that end without the rubber side down. People seeking Instagram fame may post photos or reels of themselves looking cool, sometimes while riding. It’s easy to pay more attention to the camera than to your riding and surroundings. This can lead to disastrous results.

Certainly people were getting hurt before social media, and still do when the camera isn’t running. Just ask OG motovlogger Do It With Dan, who did exactly that last year. Do you think the same phenomenon that leads to more rescue calls from people posting on social media applies to motorcyclists as well? Let us know in the comments.

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