Before people start to think badly of me, I would like for you to read my article first because some people on social media tend to not read or stop halfway then comment nasty things after. I've been defending him ever since that video although I can understand that many had gotten upset. However, condemning one man for what many vloggers have already done in the past is not the solution to the issue of suicide.
Some of you may have or not have heard about social media star Logan Paul who posted a blurred video of a corpse he found in his trip to Aokigahara Forest in Japan but it has been the buzz in the social media world for quite some time. I've seen the video as well and I admit that it did not trigger anything in me.
Here are the reasons why I think most people overreacted to what he did:
- Logan Paul is a social media superstar. He's famous and people will always have a lot to say on whatever he does. Paul's trip to Aokigahara Forest is not the only video out there. I myself have seen other vloggers venture into the forest and shot not only trees but badly rotting corpses. As a vlogger, why else go into the infamous suicide forest if not hopping to see a dead body and film it? And why this sudden hooplah on what he did when others had already done it?
- People only saw the ugly and not the good. Nobody else seems to think that it was good that Logan and his friends took that route and because of it, the body was found right away and was reported to the authorities. The poor man was not left to rot in the forest because of him unlike the many rags and bones hanging on trees found by earlier vloggers. I believe he also tried to make people more aware of suicide as he always states to the Logang to live life to the fullest and live it that only a Maverick would. I thank Dr. Phil for defending him as well because people are judging Logan like he committed a crime.
- The issue of suicide was overshadowed. As someone who had almost slit her wrist last 2015 when I've lost a lot of money due to being scammed, this is more upsetting to me. How is it that people can talk about him instead of just focusing on the real issue here, which is suicide? Because there will always be people who will kill themselves, right? And yet, that doesn't seem to bother people but Logan posting that video did. I still see kids bullying other kids, cyber bullying in many forms, and social media junkies who think they're doing the world some good just by telling Logan to kill himself. Someone even had the audacity to post a photo of a boy who committed suicide on Twitter just to incriminate Logan on what he has done. Why are people so easy to judge him for this? If Logan was a depressive, he would've killed himself for the same reason that people do. When we are made to feel alone, to be left in the dark for what we are and what we have or not have done, or worse when people are being cruel and hateful, isn't that what we should be working on? This left a question in my head: Do people really care about depressive individuals, suicide victims and their families, or were they just using Logan to kill their guilt?
I only found Logan Paul's vlogs some time in June. For a lonely single parent such as myself who has no other life but being a mother and working online, I have found so much laughter in his videos. Perhaps I do envy him for having many friends, for being able to come up with content everyday, for being unapologetic for the way that he is, I long for that same courage and lust for life. I simply took the good for good and I feel inspired everyday as he is one of the many reasons I have now. So please don't be so quick to judge one person. I'm aware that for those who have really been traumatized by suicide in their lives, it is a subject that's very fragile for them. But for those who are only in it for the sake of joining the bandwagon of haters, you are delusional if you think any good has come out of it.
Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Paul