Logan Paul, a social media star that rose to prominence on the social media app Vine, recently made a trip to Japan. While there, he visited the Aokigahara Forest, commonly known as the “Suicide Forest”. Paul stumbled upon a dead body and then filmed the body and uploaded it in a vlog onto YouTube, a platform where Paul has amassed over 16 million subscribers. Following the backlash, Paul deleted the video. However, the damage was already done. Many people wondered what could drive Paul to upload such gory content. After all, this is YouTube, not the dark web.

As a journalist, there is an ethical code that has to be followed. According to the Society of Professional Journalists, ethical journalism “treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.” It is essential to “show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage” and “use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles.” Now, you should take into account that most YouTubers aren’t journalists, and therefore don’t abide by the same code of ethics. They post whatever they need to get the views without regard for the consequences. Why do you think that everything is clickbait these days?

Paul isn’t the first and surely won’t be the last person to post something on social media that should have stayed private. However, even though Paul made a major error, it’s not fair to sit here and act like he isn’t the first person to do something stupid for views. Nowadays, everyone is thirsty for their 15 minutes of fame. That is exactly it, though. It truly is 15 minutes of fame. Even though the internet is forever, the memes don’t last a lifetime. When was the last time you heard someone ask you about The Dress? Has someone asked you to “cash them ousside?” recently? At the end of the day though, maybe I’m just bitter because I haven’t gone viral yet. I mean, if you can get on Ellen because of a video where you say “Damn, Daniel!” a million times, anything is truly possible.

As much as I disagree with what Paul did, it is easy to see why, even for a moment, Paul thought it was okay to post the video. Content creators are able to monetize the videos they upload to YouTube. That means, assuming YouTube approves the video, the creator receives compensation for their views. To be fair, the original video was not monetized. However, the apology video that Paul posted two days later, which has garnered over 47 million views to date, was monetized. Personally, I feel like this speaks volumes about Paul’s character. An error was made, and when Paul apologized for this error, he made sure he’d be getting money out of it.

Despite the flaws that lie within social media, I don’t think Twitter and YouTube and Instagram and all the other sites are bad things. Actually, quite the opposite. Through Twitter alone, a 16-year-old was promised free nuggets for life from Wendy’s if he got 18 million retweets. He managed to get 3.7 million retweets, which secured him a free year supply of nuggets, but also a $100,000 to a foundation that helps with children adoptions. On a larger scale, the #MeToo campaign that dominated social media over the past few months has prompted many sexual abuse victims to come forward and share their stories in a community where they felt accepted and supported.

I don’t think social media is inherently evil. I believe that as long as you’re old enough and able to be responsible with your account, then you’ll have no problem with social media.