Logan Paul is an Idiot.
Being the millennial that I am, one of the first things I do in the morning usually involves grabbing my phone and scrolling through my twitter feed before my eyes have adjusted to the light flooding into my bedroom. This morning, as I scrolled, I saw tweet after tweet with the name Logan Paul and some very choice words. While I generally like to consider myself as in-the-know when it comes to the internet, I had no idea who this guy was, so for the most part I just kept scrolling in search of One Direction updates and funny memes. Turns out Logan Paul is someone I could not ignore for long.
If you don't know Logan Paul, he's a Vine star turned YouTuber who posted a video in Aokigahara--a forest in Japan which has the highest suicide rate in the world--in which he discovered the body of a man who had hung himself. I have not watched the video. Even if I had heard about the video before it was taken down, I would not have watched it. The video is trash. Logan Paul is trash. He went to eastern Asia--a place where mental illness is considered shameful--and exploited a man who suffered from such pain that he decided to take his own life.
Further, Paul's apology is narcissistic and vain. He talks about his fame and success. He ends it with the #Logang4Life. He doesn't mention the victim. He doesn't apologize to the family. He doesn't mention how serious mental illness should be taken or give information about hotlines or help available. His apology did not seem sincere and did not seem as if it came from a place of regret. It came because he was criticized. And he didn't like that.
This was not a mistake. Maybe one could say filming the video was a mistake (although, going into a forest known for suicide with a camera could counteract that argument). But he went to the forest. He filmed the video. He took his memory card out of his camera and uploaded it to his computer. He edited the material. He chose a thumbnail. He wrote a caption. He hit publish and then waited for it to actually upload to the internet. If he thought this video was a mistake, he wouldn't have went through all of those steps. Instead, he further sensationalized the problematic trend of suicide as a spectacle. He influenced thousands of impressionable young fans. He treated mental illness as a joke. As clickbait. A way to get views. A way to make money.
I hate Logan Paul. Before this morning I didn't know him, but now I hate him. Or at least I want to. But in October I spoke at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention. (If you want to read more about that you can do so here.) I spoke about empathy. I spoke about how it is important to step into the other person's shoes so you might be able to see what they are going through. Maybe Paul struggles with his own mental health. Maybe Paul has never been educated on this topic that our society stigmatizes so profoundly. Maybe Paul is struggling to pay his bills and did something drastic in order to gain publicity to put food on his table.
Empathy is not always an easy thing for me. Especially when it comes to people like Logan Paul. But I try to be empathetic. I am trying to have empathy for Paul. But even more than that, I try to have empathy for those in vulnerable, misunderstood populations. Paul has a voice. A loud one. The man who committed suicide in Aokigahara does not.
National Suicide Prevention:
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
1-800-273-8255
Mental Health Hotline: 1-866-677-5924
National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
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