I often turn to YouTube for reviews of tech products and real-world performance tests and it’s always disturbing to see just how many ‘unboxing’ videos are available. I’ve never understood the obsession; unboxing is a necessary inconvenience to get to the product in side but nothing more.
What matters is the product inside, right?
It does amuse me just how much fuss reviewers make of the packaging – not the main box but often the name and composition of secondary packaging. I was watching a netbook unboxing and performance test the other day when the reviewer commented on the sleeve packaging that the netbook came in and promptly went off at a tangent for a couple of minutes in which he admitted:
a) He didn’t know what material it was;
b) he should really find out;
c) it’s that stuff that all laptops, netbooks and other gadgets are wrapped in;
d) he’ll just call it Styrofoam wrap for now; and
e) it’s damn useful stuff.
I think he almost forgot about the netbook.
Anyway, this parody of your typical unboxing vid is full of thoughtful observations about this pointless practice. Love it!
Maybe members of the blawgosphere who buy legal textbooks, casebooks and practitioner texts should do an unboxing video the next time they order something from Amazon. Heck, I might make one myself!
I don't like video reviews at all - I prefer to [skim]read them and look at pictures!
ReplyDeleteI think both have merits! :-)
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