Anticipation?
(don’t get the appeal either)
PBS Idea Channel did an interesting* video about unboxing videos, and they also compare them to ASMR.
*All of their videos are interesting
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Gee, maybe there are people interested in packaging who admire Apple’s efforts. We aren’t all un-visual engineering types. You know, like designers and students of design.
I need to consult with my engineering friends and try to determine what un-visual means and if any of them / us are afflicted by this issue.
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I can only assume he means blind. I guess that’s a new way to refer to blind people.
The blurb said it was the only unboxing video you’d ever need. Nobody really NEEDS an unboxing video.
It’s art jargon (I just made-up.) You will have to trust me on this. Most, if not all, engineer types do not have visual fluency. It’s a puzzle to those of us who do. I guess one is influenced by what one studies beyond the proper boundaries of one’s field. Engineers do not understand how the visual world influences and enhances our experience of life because they are taught to ignore what isn’t relevant to the problem they are solving and then take this very specific and useful rule and apply it inappropriately to the rest of their lives. I have seen this over and over. It makes me sad.
edited to add +confirmation bias on my part. Okay?
Engineers do not understand how the visual world influences and enhances
our experience of life because they are taught to ignore what isn’t
relevant to the problem they are solving and then take this very
specific and useful rule and apply it inappropriately to the rest of
their lives.
I’m sorry your experience with engineers has been with such narrow people.
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What? You are all having a conversation about how an unboxing video couldn’t have any real purpose. I didn’t even need to think about it to know that it is aimed at designers and students/followers of design. Your lack of imagination only reinforces my point.
That was pretty interesting.
Even after having taken quite a lot of philosophy classes, it still took me a moment to get why the distinction between “real” and “sensual” was that the glamorized product on the billboard was “real,” while the ugly unboxing video with the plastic and styrofoam peanuts and the bad lightingwas “sensual.”
I suspect it is a combination of low cost video hardware, free video hosting services, and the desire many people have to become “famous,” as evidenced by reality T.V. contestants.
As a result, we get countless videos of people wasting time waving their hands around, even when static images and text would be more suitable and/or efficient.
Sad but true.
I was under the impression that most people who watch unboxing videos, do it for the joy of vicariously experiencing somebody else’s unboxing (which is, in the tech world, one of life’s great pleasures. God help the son of a bitch who unboxes one of my gadgets for me). Your comments are an angle that I’d never considered, though.
I didn’t even need to think about it to know that it is aimed at designers and students/followers of design.
Wow. So you didn’t have to think, to know exactly who unboxing videos are aimed at. Any room in your thinking for it fetishizing consumption? That’s primarily what I find distasteful with the videos.
Of course I choose to beat on your erroneous statement that engineers have no “visual sense” and in doing so I apparently prove I have no imagination either. Way to get self righteous with your bad design self.
Also, feel free to point out wherever it was up-thread that I stated there was no real purpose. Or do I just get lumped in with anyone else that you don’t agree with?
Oh I warned you about confirmation bias. That explains all your complaints. Congratulations if you don’t suffer from the problem. Yes, I was responding to the whole tenor of the conversation and the post. My initial comment was not pointed at you. You chose to respond to me. I love ya, man. Never change.
I did catch the confirmation bias comment, but it seemed a rather weak out for putting a whole group of people in a small box. If you can acknowledge it’s an issue, then maybe you can try to think past it.
I suffer from confirmation bias at times as well, but prefer to use the realization in conjunction with an apology for me not being receptive to what’s going on instead of a blanket excuse for making broad claims that are clearly not factual.
or to put it another way:
Engineers do not understand how the visual world influences and
enhances our experience of life because they are taught to ignore what
isn’t relevant to the problem they are solving and then take this very
specific and useful rule and apply it inappropriately to the rest of
their lives. I have seen this over and over. It makes me sad.
edited to add +confirmation bias on my part. Okay?
and then following with:
Your lack of imagination only reinforces my point.
No. Really not okay.
Back specifically to unboxing though, it seems you came charging in with a whole lot of assumptions regarding why people “don’t get” these videos.
I’d prefer to see a trend of people posting videos of them putting their old tech to rest in a responsible and respectful manner, instead of all these videos of people thrusting their hands into the cookie jar.
Count me in as one of these people who do not get unboxing vids. I watched this one for about 10 minutes and - yep, looks like an iPhone to me.
I also do not really get haul videos. I tried to get into makeup last year, because I am quite terrible at applying it and always marveled (I think this is a Southern thing) at women that cannot go out the door without half a can of hairspray used up, foundation, mascara, eyes rimmed, the full on face and all of it artfully applied. So I started watching different internet folk (Wayne Goss being my favorite so far). But then sometimes they have these haul videos, where they buy a bunch of makeup and unbox it for you. The only actual useful part of this is when they swatch the colors on their hands. Otherwise, does it look like the product in the photograph? Yes? So why do I need to watch you open the box exactly?
i am always in a hurry here. So sorry if I offended you, but that seems a little bit of an over-reaction to me. The thing about confirmation bias was simply so that you could turn everything I said back a notch. I loathe prose that is full of qualifiers and apologies. Don’t you? I expect people to understand that those things are just left out for brevity and punch. I acknowledge that all engineers are not numb skulls. I acknowledge that I probably only notice sysadmins who fit the pattern. Now, don’t you think that just smudges up the point?
I can appreciate that you would prefer a boring and predictable world. Good luck with that.
“Really not okay” is just lame. Get over yourself.
Broad generalizations don’t have a heck of a lot of punch in my book. Maybe I’m just weird like that.
I can appreciate that you would prefer a boring and predictable world. Good luck with that.
Don’t know where the heck you pulled that from either. Did you leave something out for “punch” again?
Our bickering is definitely a distraction from the primary thread. I did include some explanation along the way as to why I don’t like unboxing videos, and I’m sorry my response to the generalization about engineers distracted from you commenting on that.
Glad you got all that “punchy” to counter the “lame”. Keep up the good work.
