Or a more “normally” risky existence of heavy recreational drug use, smoking and/or drinking.
I suspect it has a lot to do with what stupid stuff young people do, but history from before social media is full of examples of young people doing stupid stuff.
Oh, no question there. I was just challenging the statement that social media has “zero” to do with train surfing.
Which can and does also kill them, often horrifically, with depressing regularity. Still a damned shame.
That’s certainly true (and perhaps many of us here, including myself, did stupid stuff and survived it), but I’m kind of leaning @snowthx ’s way that social media likely has an increase in the amount of stupid stuff, or perhaps in the amount of stupid kids doing stupid stuff, we have today.
Hey. Maybe Charles Darwin, from his grave, contributed to the creation of social media! 
Here’s a recent article from the New York Times (gift link, no paywall) about a 15 year old who died “subway surfing” 2 years ago. When I saw the title, “Zackery Died After Climbing on Top of a Subway Train. Who Is to Blame?”. I thought, of course, the kid himself is to blame, but the article talks about the influence of social media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/style/subway-surfing-death-nyc-tiktok.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rk8.c89X.49N7jtjsNFpH&smid=url-share
When I was in my heyday as a local ringleader of Teen Team Stupid, we had a couple of hangers-on who were much less … judicious than the rest of the crew. And who were generally kinda klutzy.
Looking back on it, they really didn’t quite belong in my/our circle of demi-delinquents. They were just seeking acceptance by hanging with the cooler kids. For our dumb male definition of cool.
Those kids got hurt a lot more often than the rest of us. But at least they had the rest of us immediately present to help teach them how to do [whatever] dumb stunt we were trying.
Now in the Tiktok era I can see those same mild misfits and athletically challenged kids wanting to join the cool kids they see online by doing (and recording and posting) whatever dumb dangerous shit is currently popular trending. But without benefit of real live mentoring at it. With a much greater injury and failure rate as they try these stunts more or less solo and more or less cold.
Net result being more people trying e.g. trainsurfing than 20 years ago, and people who’re more inept doing so. With the predictable sad outcomes all around.
I was 15 years old in 1979. I did a lot of these kinds of things. Thank heavens we didn’t have social media.
I’ve seriously wondered if anyone ever learns in-person tips from commuters in say Jakarta, Bangladesh, or parts of Russia who are seemingly experienced in train surfing. They seem like better places to practice than in the USA.
To quote the film, “Ain’t that a son of a bitch?”
Interesting question. From what I’ve seen, trains in those places aren’t exactly designed for riding up there, but they also lack obstructions to riding up there.
The issue w US rapid transit seems to be that so many are designed with a tight fit between the cars and at least some of the tunnels or bridges or whatever. So in addition to the general risk of falling off a jostling moving vehicle, you have the risk of being swept off it when a trackside [whatever] comes by too closely for you to avoid.
I will admit here that I was wrong. I DO believe that stupid teenage crap on trains predates social media by literally a few hundred years.
But I was wrong to make such a black and white statement. Social media immediately shows the entire world that can watch what a dangerous knucklehead you are. Or were. Before you were beheaded by an overhead wire.