--- title: Teenage British Selfie Addicts Attempts Suicide Over Failed Photos description: Okay, this whole selfie craze is actually becoming a problem canonical: https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-24T17:14:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:06.222Z og:title: This Teenager Reportedly Tried to Kill Himself Because He Wasn't Satisfied With the Quality of His Selfies og:description: Selfies are actually becoming a problem og:url: https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aed8b9eb6960f31/698686f7361760a51590b13f/462769603.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 462769603 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Teenager Reportedly Tried to Kill Himself Because He Wasn't Satisfied With the Quality of His Selfies twitter:description: Selfies are actually becoming a problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aed8b9eb6960f31/698686f7361760a51590b13f/462769603.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Teenager Reportedly Tried to Kill Himself Because He Wasn't Satisfied With the Quality of His Selfies by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 24, 2014 5:14 PM UTC  Selfie in prison Selfie in prisonGetty Images/Lonely Planet by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 24, 2014 5:14 PM UTC You know those friends you have on Facebook or Instagram who seem like they could possibly be addicted — truly _addicted_ — to taking selfies? Well, for most people, that compulsion is relatively harmless, but for 19-year-old Danny Bowman, it reportedly led to an attempted suicide. The British teen spent up to 10 hours each day taking photos of himself on his iPhone, the _Daily Mirror_ [reports](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/selfie-addict-took-two-hundred-3273819). The addiction became so debilitating that he dropped out of school and retreated into his home for six months. “I was constantly in search of taking the perfect selfie and when I realized I couldn’t I wanted to die,” Bowman told the _Daily Mirror_. “I lost my friends, my education, my health and almost my life.” He nearly overdosed on pills, but his mother intervened and helped keep him alive. Bowman’s case is extreme, yes, but psychiatrists are beginning to consider selfie addiction as a serious mental health issue. Maybe we should all just stop taking selfies and solely use our smartphones for the truly important things, like pretending we’re texting to avoid saying hello to people. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/"},"headline":"Teenager Reportedly Tried to Kill Himself Because He Wasn't Satisfied With the Quality of His Selfies","datePublished":"2014-03-24T17:14:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:06.222Z","description":"Okay, this whole selfie craze is actually becoming a problem","url":"https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Millennials","viral","selfie"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aed8b9eb6960f31/698686f7361760a51590b13f/462769603.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aed8b9eb6960f31/698686f7361760a51590b13f/462769603.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"462769603","caption":"462769603","creditText":"Getty Images/Lonely Planet","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/35701/selfie-addict-attempts-suicide/","name":"Teenager Reportedly Tried to Kill Himself Because He Wasn't Satisfied With the Quality of His Selfies"}}]}] ```