The Logan Paul Question: Teaching Teens Morality through Epic Fails

Author: Michael Cullinane

Date: March 21, 2018

https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/logan-paul-question-teaching-teens-morality-through-epic-fails

First Impression: I am quite familiar with what happened to the Logan Paul incident that happened in Japan's Suicide Forest and what happened to him and his viewers after the incident. The essay probably talks about how the use of different Social Media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. helps its users make smarter decisions in life.

Quote: “You will be celebrated and can get rich for being a narcissistic jackass, until you cross the line into an epic fail, after which you’ll turn into a social media pariah. ”

Reflection: 

The essay is mainly focused on how Popular Youtubers such as Logan Paul affect the young people with their morality and make more responsible choices. During the previous years, let’s say the 1970’s, influencers at that time were mostly bands, such as Queen, television artists, music, and politicians. Everyone looked up at these people and thought of what it was like to be like them. In the present year, 2019, the rise of “just-like-me” celebrities became something that people from this generation look up to. Which also influence other celebrities to start their own YouTube career, mostly on vlogging. The general category of videos that are trending is people’s vlogs, mostly celebrity vlogs. Vloggers usually make mistakes on their opinion on a particular topic, which then creates hate towards them, but then creates another video about an apology to what they have said from the previous video. This is a good example of how morality is being used on YouTube, Apology Videos since it teaches younger generations not to do what the Youtuber did to avoid being hurt in different ways. 

5 Things That I’ve Learned

1. Mistakes of people online help their viewers in a positive way.

2. When we see something that is ‘off-limits’ there is a part of us that want to adventure that thing.

3. We must face the consequences of our wrong doings.

4. Watching YouTube videos can be a good thing as long as it is educational, and has a positive effect towards its audience.

5. We know how we can be good by knowing how much bad we can do.

5 Integrative Questions

1. When do people know that it’s the right time to stop?

2. When young viewers watch Youtubers, specifically vloggers, what is the one thing that makes them interested with the video?

3. How does the YouTube algorithm work?

4. Why are there times where the Top 10 trending videos on YouTube show graphical content which do not match its audience?

5. Should YouTubers like Logan Paul be forgiven for what he did?