The Fault In Our Youth Culture: Okay? Not Okay.
 |
| Entrance to the Aokigahara Forest |
In the film, Merchants of Cool, they cover the whole premise of the "mook." This obnoxious, insensitive character has been perpetuated for decades by the media, creating endless entertainment for millions of youth. With the rise of online media, this character has been easily manufactured and distributed for a few years now. Logan Paul (along with many other YouTube and Instagram "comedians") creates material by being a mook. From crazy stunts to objectifying women, they gain their mass of followers through simple, dumb humor. Only recently have marketers caught on to the influence and importance of platforms such as YouTube, which leads me to believe they only indirectly created these mooks. These 20-24 y/o creators were raised on media from the early 2000s, and have evolved into who they are today because of what they watched then. The culture that was sought out and exploited by corporations was consumed by people like Logan Paul, and now we pay for it. Of course there isn't always a problem with youth entertainment, but something that no one has been able to make mainstream is discussing sensitive subjects such as suicide and depression. Instead of educating the masses and making suicide a comfortable topic to discuss, corporations have put all their focus into pleasing the masses rather than educating the masses.
As a society we must allow for depression and related topics to be okay, normal, natural. Instead of alienating those who suffer we have to seek a solution, together. Personally, talking about sadness has never been fun or deemed "okay." Yes, friends are always there to ask "what's wrong" or offer consul for your beloved pet dying, but if you add the word "depression" in the medical, psychological sense, the atmosphere just gets heavy and uncomfortable. Our only refuge seems to be the psychologists arm chair, and not the arms of those we love. Oh and don't even think about mentioning suicidal thoughts! The stigma can be cleared at least a little though if we make these subjects more mainstream, and teach people at a young age how to be sensitive to others who are in a bad place, and not make the subject seem like the monster under your bed. Talking about suicide doesn't "give kids ideas," it allows them to be comfortable with reaching out if they are in a bad place, and not store up all these scary and confusing emotions. So Logan is just another product of our censorship of emotions, now what? The time is already up for our age group, but we have to stimulate a youth culture that discusses mental health now, for those same pre-teens who watched the dumbfounded expressions of Logan and his friends. We have to give them a real image to look up to, not the mooks of yesterday.
An Article Discussing Problems with YouTube's Handling of Paul's Video
I agree with your conclusion of Logan as a mook. I too did a blog post on Logan and one on the mook yet I didn't make the connection. It just shows how we need to be careful on the internet and how what we do can spread very quickly.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that Logan displayed disturbing behavior. It should not be just accepted when someone carelessly throws about someone's suicide as not being as serious as it is. Things like depression should definitely be a much more open topic among people in society. If this were the case, maybe people like Logan, and other mooks, would realize what is the right and wrong when handling a situation like this. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWhile I largely agree with your analysis of the latest of a long history of wonderfully asinine actions by Logan Paul, I think there is something to be said for the larger, structural stigma around mental disability. While I think that the often ableist rhetoric of the mook is a clear manifestation of stigma, I am of the opinion that is is merely a small piece of a larger narrative of exclusion, stigma, and violence against disabled folk that forms the basis for how we understand and interact with discussions of suicide. While I agree that attacking people like Logan is good, I think it is more productive to focus energy towards the larger narrative of exclusion that creates people like Logan in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWhile pondering what to do my media blog this week, I thought about discussing Logan Paul as mook, but I second guessed myself on whether or not he was a mook. At first, I said, "Of course he's a mook because of his immature behavior," but then I then I second guessed myself. His target market is made up of some teenage boys which the "Merchants of Cool" discussed is his target market, but the majority of his target market is preteens and kids of all genders. I concluded that the mook of today has evolved from the mook of "Merchants of Cool." It is now slightly more hidden and can appeal to different age ranges because the mook has grown smarter.
ReplyDelete