On December 31, YouTube sensation, Logan Paul, uploaded a video on his channel that contained footage of a suicide victim hung from a tree in the middle of a forest. Both Paul and a group of friends visited Japan’s Aokigahara Forest, a notorious spot for suicides. Logan pulled out a camera and began to vlog his experience walking through the forest, not expecting to find a dead body. But when he did, instead of respectfully powering off, he kept the camera rolling. Paul made attempts to sensor the footage before posting it, but those efforts proved unsuccessful because the public video still included clear scenes of the victim. Scarred viewers protested in the comments section after watching Paul disrespect the man by filming him and laughing at jokes made related to the victim. This resulted in negative attention from the media and his removal from YouTube Preferred and other advertising sites.

Paul thrived off his YouTube channel with a bounteous 15,600,000 subscribers. He posted daily vlogs, and his whole life revolved around social media. Although, he made a living off his channel, the issue demonstrates that a single mistake, such as this one, impacts his whole career. People face this in the real world today at their average day-to-day jobs. Teachers often end up fired for using foul language to students, doctors for taking advantage of their resources

and store clerks for shoplifting from their own store, but the whole world hears nothing about it. Although Paul took down the video, many viewers own copies of it and the lasting effect of the video will never be forgotten. Due to the fact social media stars influence so many people of all ages, a majority under the age of eighteen, it becomes easy for them to take advantage of the platform.

Stars like Paul feel the need to compete with other influencers and networks for views and likes, bringing in money and increasing popularity. Although Paul did make the decision to film and post the disturbing video, the public who watches these vlogs and invests interest into what Paul is doing on a day-to-day basis should take part of the responsibility. Not for the contents of the video, but for the pressure put on the creator to show them something interesting. Why does society invest so much time into what others do with their life, rather than going out and living their own or even building people up in positive ways?

In an interview, reality star and professional psychologist, Dr. Phil suggested that even though Paul did an unacceptable thing, he should be forgiven for his mistake, and hopefully he learns from what he did.

In response to the public’s reaction, Paul took down the video and three days later, proceeded to post an apology stating that he realized that posting, let alone filming the video, was insensitive and a mistake on his part. He also said that he thought the video would raise awareness to suicide prevention. Although he did defend his actions and made several excuses in his apology, Paul obviously felt bad about the situation and knew he was at fault. Coming back from this, hopefully all social media influencers, and the public in general, can learn a lesson and proceed to use YouTube for its convenience and appropriate entertainment, rather than a site to compete for views, resulting in videos such as the one of Paul’s.