Who is Logan Paul and should we care?

Dubai - Is Logan Paul the voice of a generation? The social media entertainer was in Dubai for a meet and greet with his fans which created an absolute frenzy. But despite his Internet fame and legions of followers, we wonder: does he represent the best or the worst of the millennial generation?

If you were at the Dubai Mall on Saturday. well, good luck to you. I walked through like a stranger in a strange land surrounded by screaming teenagers pushing each other all gravitating towards the Dubai Ice Rink. There were almost a million of them. No joke. Some of them had been waiting there since 10am that morning, some had dragged their parents on a Saturday from 8am to wait at the entrance of the mall to be first in line - why? For who? Logan Paul.

The social media mega superstar  (quite the title, I know) made his first ever appearance in Dubai at the Dubai Mall for a meet and greet with his fans. I can only compare the frenzy to what I understand Beatle mania to be, or the release of a new Harry Potter book . Yes the social media entertainer is huge but what's interesting in this era of Internet fame, is that you could be loved by millions while still being an enigma to millions of others and unknown to another hundred million. It's strange, odd and worth examining. So here we are examining who Logan Paul is and why he's such a big deal.

Who is he?
So here's a bit of background. Logan Paul is a massively well known online celebrity who started his career on Vine making short funny prank videos. With death of Vine as a platform (hey, social media is a pretty cut throat industry) he moved on to YouTube doing pretty much the same thing but with longer videos. He gets millions of views and showing no signs of slowing down with brands jumping on board to utilise his popularity.

Why is he famous?
It's hard to understand and yet it's so easy to see why Logan Paul is famous. He does idiotic, poorly executed pranks, placing himself in minimal danger (well perhaps not minimal as he recently admitted to losing 15 percent of one of his testicles when a prank went wrong). Logan Paul uses the trope of predictable scenarios in his videos with a contemporary twist along with some "clever" marketing with consistent uploads. He currently posts a Vlog a day.

Why are his videos good?
That's more of a trick question. To start off with, his videos no matter how short or long, tend to have a dose of slapstick humour, mixed in with banal and anti-climatic leadups to the "plot twists" all framed within this adrenaline junkie persona who exists within a universal bro code fraternity type brotherhood.
Basically imagine Steve Stifler from American Pie on steroids filming all the ridiculous stuff he does. There is no real substance, no authenticity, but for people of a certain age it's addictive. Which brings us to our next point.

Who loves Logan Paul?
Young millennials. He's not even that popular with older millennials. The younger you are, the more likely you're going to find Logan Paul interesting, funny, entertaining or even iconic. What does that say about the next generation? Doomed?
No, not yet. Unlike the Beatles or Harry Potter, but very much like tamagotchis and Hanson we have a feeling that Logan Paul, if he remains on this same trajectory, will be a passing trend. A fad. Sort of like the shoulder pads in the eighties we will (at some point) want to, need to, forget we were ever obsessed with.

Why is he bad?
Logan Paul isn't necessarily "bad". He and his brother Jake Paul who is also a YouTuber and dubbed the "Villain of YouTube", have recently been involved in an "online feud" full of clap backs, and diss tracks (yeah, they rap - cue eye roll) about "beef" that involves of all the most cliché things in the world - a girl. The nature, type, length and even subject matter of his content relies solely on a person's most basic form of enjoyment - quick, simple, easy, accessible. But the secret ingredient here is consistency - Logan Paul is constant with his messaging and the frequency of delivering content to his audience. Work ethic is important but it isn't and won't be the reason why someone like Logan will be "the voice of a generation" especially when that generation grows up and gets sick of pranks.

• Dubai