Personally, I'm glad he documented his journey in this way. I'm glad to have shared in it, (mind the sarcasm) without crowding his solitude by watching him in person for a year.
It's a real accomplishment. I thought part of the point of the internet was to share things we do. This doesn't read as "gross, wannabe influencer" material, but rather a journey of interest and passion, documented for himself and others.
As I said, I have no problem sharing it. The controversy I see is between the message of "off grid, good old fashioned solitude in the forest" vs the "instagrammy, watch me how I do, big brotherish" (as in the TV show) attitude. Not the fact that he conveyed information of what it's like to build a cabine.
In other words if you want to show and document the process of building such a thing, that's ok. But it's not that. If you want to document your 'journey' of solitude, that's OK too, but you can't do that in my opinion by constantly minding about how you look on camera. Because that kind of defeats any purpose I can think of for solitude. (I.e. am I really alone if I keep thinking about the society that I wanted to leave behind and continue acting as if I was still there and they were still all watching.)
You can look at it as an art project. I.e. "this is how I imagine what it feels like to build a cabine in the woods on your own".
It's a real accomplishment. I thought part of the point of the internet was to share things we do. This doesn't read as "gross, wannabe influencer" material, but rather a journey of interest and passion, documented for himself and others.