It’s been a split-second since 2017, and already the Internet has bombarded us with ignorance and controversy – and memes, but they’re a fundamental force of nature by this stage. One common theme that keeps reoccurring is the human adoration for spectacle – I mean simply that we love seeing crazy stuff, which served as the very essence of the 7-second format Vine employed in its lifetime. It’s always been a point of division, with those who don’t enjoy the fast-paced wackiness deeming it childish nonsense against its ever-enthusiastic base, yet 2018 has served up a few major incidents that bring our love of visual buffoonery into question.
I’ll start with the big one, or at least the matter I think more of you will know of. Literally two days into the New Year, prominent vlogger Logan Paul apparently left his decency and common sense in bed and uploaded a video taken on a trip to Japan wherein the remains of a suicide victim are (near enough) fully captured. Paul, unsurprisingly, received a lot of backlash for this, despite half-hearted attempts to cover himself, including claims he wanted to focus on the ‘haunted aspect’ of Aokigahara Forest and an apology letter that consisted mainly of boasts about his view counts. It was a mess, to be sure. The video was taken down – by Paul, not YouTube – and the matter still rages on, albeit much less in the spotlight.
I’m sure there’s plenty of Paul-bashing on the Internet by now – there was likely an ample supply before this recent outrage, so I won’t pour water into that lake. Instead, I’m more interested in the video itself, specifically why a video depicting a corpse ended up on a popular YouTube channel in the first place. What drove Paul to believe this video was the content he wanted to share? More importantly, what drove the video’s millions of viewers to want to witness its contents? You’ve likely already made this connection yourself, but for me it’s the spectacle of it all. After all, who gets to see a dead body every day, in real life or vicariously online? It’s unusual, and for our so-called ‘millennial’ generation it’s something even more irresistible – an experience. Paul’s video was an offer many couldn’t refuse.
Let’s shelve Paul (for now or forever depending on your feelings) and turn to eating soap. I of course refer to Tide Pods, and the incessant gorging of them that’s filling the Ice Bucket, Bottle Flip, Mannequin-shaped hole in many people’s lives. If you thought nuclear war with North Korea, anonymous gangs of cyber-terrorists and Boris Johnson were the most imminent threats to the West then you’d be very wrong – it’s laundry detergent. It’s a viral meme that’s both socially and literally toxic, so arguably it belongs online. Quite simply, people film themselves consuming a prominent American single-load laundry pod. That’s it, yet it’s a fairly large trend that’s gathering a lot of attention. I can’t really conceive that Procter & Gamble are having to spell out that Tide Pods are for ‘doing laundry. Nothing else’, when a decade ago such a statement would have been condescending and nonsensical. It still is, honestly, though looking around at Brexit, Trump and Snapchat stories of non-sticking snow makes me want to chow down on detergent too.
But why, you’d ask if such absurdities weren’t pretty normal by now, do people feel the need to do this? This differs from Paul in that it’s a movement rather than a single individual. I use the term sparingly, of course, to capture the idea that many are doing this. Here, that fascination with grotesque images has been coupled with the insecurity, the need for validation that permeates through effectively every person but especially teenagers. It’s equally visible in university societies and even in coffee shops – we gel with those who share our interests. Only in uni clubs and cafes, we don’t eat gel.
I’ll end by stating that I don’t intend to mock Paul or anybody who feels the need to consume cleaning products. They’re only reflecting their surroundings – every day new headaches spew out of Trump’s White House or the Brexit department, and every day we lap them up with a resigned facepalm. The news is a daily tragedy and we adore tragedies, especially ones complete with horrifying visuals such as a retching teenager or a corpse. These cases are extreme, of course, but they are merely representations of the same phenomenon that dominates the news today.
That said, don’t film a dead body, and don’t eat laundry detergent.