Is this the future of content?

This has been on mind lately and I'm thinking about Logan Paul's controversial video that featured a man who just committed suicide in the Aokihagara Forest or known as the 'Suicide Forest' of Japan. It has caused quite an online ruckus and people have been calling him out for the disturbing act and just yesterday, I read that a lot of his partners cut ties with him and his channel plus a couple of his TV shows have been put on hold.

First, I think the act is very disrespectful and distasteful. As one random Japanese guy whom I saw in an FB commentary video and was asked for his opinion on the matter said: even if Logan blurred the face of the victim and the other parts of his body, his body as a whole will still be identified by the people close to him and that alone is painful for them; so aside from being disrespectful, the video too will inadvertently cause trauma and pain to the family when they see it (which is highly likely because this is great news). There are also laws against publicizing suicide victims and police and medical experts are very careful when discussing the topic.

And there's also his string of Japan videos that are just as worse as the suicide video; a bunch of kids trashing a place where respect for the self, the community, and culture are held in high regard. This is for another story.

It shouldn't have come to this

Second, I am beginning to question what kind of content creators Youtube is breeding and this generation is idolizing, and how our thirst for online entertainment is slowly taking a dark turn.

You see, this is a symbiotic relationship. Content creators and fans feed off each other; CCs are there to entertain, fans will clamor for more, CCs will ask fans to challenge them, fans will request the most extreme videos, and of course, CC can't say no; because that means boring out his fans, losing his fan base, and eventually his numbers, fame, and kaching. Fans will be exposed to a new kind of entertainment that is more exciting, more extreme, and at some point, twisted.

And now we have these kinds of videos everyday: people stuffing themselves with food in front of a salivating audience, eating corn on a drill, hitting others, kids slapping and disrespecting their parents, people filming assaults and posting them online, individuals spilling family secrets/skeletons/matters that should not be made public, makeup applied using the bottom of a shoe-these are just some of the extreme videos we are exposed to everyday; they excite us, titillate us, and bring about a surge of complex emotions that we've never felt before. And that's why we want more and we expect our content creator heroes to deliver the same quality. Digital voyeurism at work.

But on the brighter side, there are also a lot of positive aspects in social media.

The lesson here is CONTROL. You have the power to control your content, audience, and direction. The problem with being viral is it's too fast that you can't keep up and in order to do so, you have to be controversial. Most of the time, this means being mean and disrespectful; and this doesn't end well.

Still, what gets me is the act of posting the suicide video. I don't have to put my hand in hot water to know how traumatic it is for the family of a suicide victim to see that their plight is being used for entertainment.

Logan should have turned off his camera; heck, he shouldn't have ventured into the restricted area in the first place. If he wanted to help, he could have recalled the experience in another way and called for action to change the way we see mental illness.

We're still a long way from accepting that mental illness is illness and from learning how this should be dealt with. To my fellow influencers, Youtubers, and bloggers, you have the voice to inspire and move so please, use it wisely. If you can't help the problem, at least don't add to the problem.

In the Philippines, if you need medical assistance on mental- related illnesses, you can call HOPELINE PHILIPPINES

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(02) 804-46730917-558 46732919 for TM and Globe subscribers (Toll- free)