Logan Paul Gallivants into the Suicide Forest

Molly Farrar, A&E Editor

Adorning an adorable Alien from “Toy Story” hat and a bright jean Gucci jacket, youtuber Logan Paul waltzed into the Aokigahara forest in Japan, ready to camp the night and have a blast with his buds and a video camera.

 

Paul then posted a video on Youtube on Dec. 31 entitled “We found a dead body in the Japanese suicide forest….,” and his viewers discovered that one of his embellished clickbaits were accurate.

 

The Aokigahara forest is known as the “suicide forest” and is located about 2 hours outside of Tokyo.  According to CNN, at the entrance is a sign that reads “please don’t suffer alone, and first reach out.” Over a hundred travellers went to the forest to commit suicide from 2013 to 2015.

 

In the video, Paul and his video camera entered the forest and came across a body hanging from a tree, not a hundred yards from the parking lot.

 

As Paul told the camera in his “vlog” for the day, or video blog, it was the first time he had seen a dead body. People react to shock in many different ways. However, yelling out to a corpse hanging from a tree, “Yo, are you alive? Are you f***ing with us?” is completely disrespectful.

 

He told his “Logang,” or his fan base, that it was “supposed to be a fun vlog,” in the video, completely disregarding his apparent intention to bring awareness to depression and suicide, as he said later on social media, for millions to see.

 

Paul’s sphere of influence is great. According to CBS News, his social media accounts combined reach 50 million people. He is the fifth-highest paid Youtube star, and many are speculating that this is what pushed his video under the trending tab on Youtube.

 

Paul needs to recognize his audience. Unfortunately, he is a role model for some teens, and millions of these teen were exposed to his blatant disregard for the victim and his family.

 

After 6 million views or so, Paul deleted the video after well-placed criticism. In an age when our stars are at a screen’s distance, they become less iconic and more human, with understandable mistakes during live videos or typos on social media.

 

However, Paul is different. He went home, he uploaded this footage to his computer, edited the footage, posted it and then waited. Maybe his apology that he posted on twitter two days later was real, but he was apologizing for everyone calling him out, not for posting it.

 

Now, Paul is taking a break from vlogging. His best choice throughout this ordeal was his goodbye tweet, simply saying “taking time to reflect, no vlog for now, see you soon.”