We should learn from Logan Paul’s transgression

Whatever Logan Paul’s initial thoughts were when he saw a dead person hanging in Japan’s Aokigahara “suicide forest” and whatever his justifications were for making a dead body the subject of a YouTube video, I doubt they were malodorous.

I doubt even if his intentions were much different than our own when we post a Snapchat or Instagram photo of a good meal before we eat it, or of a football game we attended or of a study session with friends. Paul did not see a dead person per se but perhaps a chance at the viral hall of fame. Real life existed for virtual life, and in that respect Paul did what his fans wanted him to do — entertain. To be sure, he is an extreme case — a person who went to the fringes of our technology obsessed culture and found that he wasn’t welcome back. He sacrificed human worth and morality for views. That is not just bad or unacceptable, but wrong.

In the past I have taken an ardent, contrarian position against modern technology, especially social media and its surrounding culture. A lot of the commentary I read about this topic came from older people whose mental furniture excluded texting, Tinder or FaceTime. This commentary was mostly, if not purely, negative and saw in the new technology obsessed culture the signs of the end times.

I too saw nothing valuable in social media and am still skeptical of it today. But I have realized that virtual reality is an essential, inescapable fact of the 21st century. I am not so much interested in bullying social media now as I am in exploring better ways to live with it, though I find myself doing the former too often. The latter conversation ought to fill our public spaces; hopefully this column can contribute something of substance to it.

The case of Logan Paul should not be dismissed or forgotten for the simple reason that what he did is symbolic of how not to use digital technology. Paul is a young guy, and we should not forsake him to celebrity hell. His transgression is an expression of the culture he is steeped in, and it is that we should reflect on because we are all daily contributors to it. I think we, especially us young people, need to do some serious collaborative thinking about what social media is for. It is a tool, and, like any tool, when in the hands of people can be used for profound or selfish purposes. Paul viewed the Internet as a space for himself to win views and likes and thus win fame. Anything he encountered, no matter how profane or sacred, was malleable for this end. I see similar trends in our assumptions about social media. Most people would not do what Paul did, but most people, at the prospect of something extraordinary, funny, entertaining or moving are compelled to pull out the phone and share the experience just as Paul was. This — the desire to bless others with what has blessed us — is not inherently wrong. Yet, if a friend gave you a gift, but asked you every five minutes if you liked it, who can we say the gift is really for?

In any case, I think social media should be more than a platform for the self; now, though, it is treated simply as an opportunity for the self to transfigure itself — to become the type of self it cannot be in real life. Sharing pictures of fun experiences, or posting when you get hired or engaged, etc. are blessings social media offers, but improving one’s profile should not be the sole reason one uses it.

Logan Paul had such an attitude, and I think what he did was an inevitable consequence of that. Let’s learn from him. Let’s try on alternative approaches to our digital age and talk about what a socially enriching technology dominated culture would look like. If only to avoid creating a culture where dead bodies go viral.

Scott Stinson is a UF English junior. His column appears on Wednesdays.