Trigger warning: in this article, I will be mentioning suicide and death. If you don't want to be exposed to such things, please do not read this.
Logan Paul is a famous Youtuber and role model for many. His target audience is pre-teens, children, and teenagers. Recently, he posted a video titled "We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest." In this video, they go to Aokigahara forest, otherwise known as Suicide Forest in Japan. This forest is a place many people go to end their lives. In 2015, roughly 2,4000 people committed suicide there. Logan and his friends went there for the "spooky" element, hoping to find ghosts and sleep there overnight. Going to this place to have a scary vlog is disrespectful already, but what they did later on in the video was purely revolting.
The video starts off with Logan saying that nothing like this has ever happened on Youtube before and that this was going to make history. While they're traversing the forest, Logan mentions in a panicked voice that he thinks he sees a dead body. They approach the dead body and continue recording, zooming in on it, only blurring the face "out of respect." The most disturbing part is that him and his friends begin to laugh and crack jokes around the corpse. He even put an image of the dead body in the thumbnail. The video was deleted and Logan Paul came out with the weakest apology I think I've ever read.
I gave this one read and knew it was insincere. Firstly, the wording is all "I" and "me." There is no mention of the victim or his loved ones. I quote PewDiePie from his video "LOGAN PAUL": "it's the first apology I've ever seen that has an emoji sign in it and a hashtag." Logan also says that it was a mistake and pulls out the "I'm human" card. A mistake is like an accident. He didn't accidentally go to the forest, record the dead body, edit the video, and release it. He is a grown man and should have better judgment. It was not a mistake, it was wrong. He did later come out with an apology in video form that was better, but I simply don't believe it. The only reason he made that second apology was because his first one was being heavily criticized.
I have so much to say on this subject, and I found a video that summarizes my thoughts. It's a great video and I recommend watching it.
I agree that he wanted to find the dead body. He used the image of the corpse in the thumbnail and was obviously hoping to use it for views. It also hit a nerve when he said it was Youtube history. That's what this was all about for him, getting views, making history and ending up on trending. He did exactly that, and I'm disappointed in the people defending him, but mostly, I am disappointed in Logan Paul.
I can't possibly say all I want to say without writing a chapter book, so I'm going to end my article here. If you are struggling with suicidal or depressive thoughts, please seek help.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
Images: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6cj1oy
Sources: http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/health/japan-suicide-forest-intl/index.html
https://twitter.com/LoganPaul?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-lHJZR3Gqxm24_Vd_AJ5Yw
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://kidshelpphone.ca/contact