A recent survey by the independent Levada Center pollster showed that most Russians never take photos of themselves on their mobile phones despite authorities' concerns over a number of grisly selfie-related deaths.
Only five percent of those questioned said they took a selfie more than once a week, the poll published online Monday showed.
But a large majority, 73 percent, said they never took selfies, and 40 percent of respondents said they never used their mobile phones to take photos of anything.
Unsurprisingly, a breakdown of the results showed that selfies were most popular among people aged 18 to 24, with 15 percent of respondents in that category saying they took selfies several times a week and 27 percent saying they did so several times a month.
But even among that age group, more than one-third of respondents said they never took selfies. In the 25 to 39 age group, 59 percent said they did not participate in the trend.
The practice does not appear to have taken off among those aged 55 and older, with 95 percent of that age category saying they never took selfies.
The results showed selfies were slightly more popular among women than men and tended to be more frequent in large cities.
The select group of people who do take selfies are nonetheless a cause of concern for the Russian authorities.
Russia's Interior Ministry this summer launched an awareness campaign in the wake of a spate of deaths of people trying to take selfies — including two men who died after posing with a hand grenade and a 21-year-old university graduate who plunged to her death while hanging from a Moscow bridge and posing for a selfie.
The Levada poll questioned 1,600 people in 46 Russian regions from Oct. 2 to 5. The margin of error did not exceed 4.1 percent.
Contact the author at e.hartog@imedia.ru
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