Mimetic Production in YouTube Toy Unboxing Videos

Abstract

This article contributes to research on children's participation on social media by analyzing "toy unboxing" videos. Toy unboxing videos are a popular genre on the video-sharing platform YouTube, in which children and adults record themselves unpacking and reviewing various commercial toys. Emerging research in this area has focused on case studies of how these videos are consumed within the home as a means of augmenting offline toys and play practices, or, more commonly, on case studies of how these videos fit within YouTube's broader economies of play and performance. Drawing on data produced through a content analysis of 100 recent toy unboxing videos, this article analyzes the place of children in the YouTube genre's "affinity space." The toy unboxing videos are coded across five key categories-genre, product, narration, production, and branding-to analyze variations of expertise, professionalism, and promotion across the genre. The findings indicate that children's modes of production as amateur content producers both shape and are shaped by the shared and standardized conventions of this video genre. That is, while well-known "professional" channels such as EvanTube often seek to produce a semblance of playful amateur authenticity, the ostensibly "amateur" child unboxers mimic the production and branding strategies of the "professional" channels. We argue that this reciprocal relationship between professional and amateur content production can be best understood through the concept of "mimesis," which characterizes the qualities of play and commercialization within the toy unboxing genre.

YouTube Children’s Videos: Development of a Genre under Algorithm

“…While these videos follow established scripts within the genre, there are also certain forms of variety and blurring with other genres. While some literature on the dynamics of mimesis among children's YouTube videos has argued that competition for viewership requires differentiation [17], the innovation we have observed is largely limited to different ways of merging existing scripts. The live-action family outing videos blur with the styles of adult vlogs (which were treated as out-ofscope for this study), a trait most obvious in the code clusters, but one still present in the video clusters.…”

“…While previous work on children's unboxing videos has argued that "children's mimetic and imitative play intensifies when brought into contact with virtual spaces" [17], this is largely only possible for toy fantasies and not for parental fantasies. While most toys featured in unboxing videos can be purchased with relative ease, changing the dynamics of one's home and family to align with a fantasized version viewed on YouTube is much more difficult or impossible.…”

“…While most toys featured in unboxing videos can be purchased with relative ease, changing the dynamics of one's home and family to align with a fantasized version viewed on YouTube is much more difficult or impossible. Additionally, while it has been suggested that children's videos feature loving families in order to alleviate concerns of child exploitation [17], the image of the loving family is also for the benefit of the child-viewer. This is especially true if parents play a more limited role in curating their child's time on YouTube.…”

“…Since adults often act as gatekeepers for children's access to the devices required to view these videos [15], it should be noted that several video features may serve as markers for adults to indicate content appropriate for their children. In addition to authenticity [17], one such feature is the abundance of characters from shows and movies familiar to adults. Another feature, perhaps even more important, is pseudo-educational components to these videos.…”

“…Craig and Cunningham [16] produced a detailed discussion of YouTube toy unboxing videos from a media regulation and economics perspective. Nicole and Nansen [17] produced a content analysis of the genre features of toy unboxing, focusing on the conflicting values of professionalization and authenticity.…”