Amazing the difference between this topic and the one immediately below it....

In his State-of-Union address, didn't the President thank these people for spurring economic growth?

I imagine that the level of interest I have in that video is about the same as she would have watching any number of gadget reviews, ukelele performances, or steampunk wheelchair demonstration videos. One person's absurd consumerism is another person's passion. To each their own.

Honestly, this makes about as much sense to me as "unboxing" gadget videos, or people showing off their latest phone/teapot/song/cat/grandchild. The compulsion to share your happiness is pretty universal, and with cameras becoming ubiquitous, this seems like a natural outgrowth.

I strongly disagree. My stuff is awesome. This stuff is crap. ;)

While I agree I see the general sharing aspect, I'd rather sit through 20 mins of teeth cleaning than 20 mins of these videos.

However, I do like the "how to" videos that people seem to put up on youtube. Everything from home handy stuff (sharpening a chainsaw) to how to apply makeup. Some people are very good at what they present, and it goes a long way to help other that are interested see/learn how to do it.

I made it to 1:33... It was work to even get that far. Really? 10 minutes of this? ...and there are more videos like this? Uffda

After 20 sec it was just bla bla bla bla and after 3 min I recognized that I left it open

hope this won't get a new trend

I thank YouTube how to videos for my rudimentary knowledge of knitting. :) You can learn all sorts of stuff from the internet. At this stage I can honestly say I know a little bit about everything and not much about anything.

Haul vlogging + Google captioning datamining = marketing goldmine.

Wow. This reminds me a LOT of the "brand bragging" that you see a lot on ChinaSmack. It appears that showing off new designer labels on videos is a cross-cultural phenomenon.

It's easy to take shots at the uselessness of it all, but how's this subculture any different from the adults that waste time playing video games, a subculture that BB promotes?

Blogging becomes Vlogging becomes...

This practice must inevitably become known as "Hogging", right?

Interesting. On the one hand, she is likely very excited about what she got and wants to share her happiness with others. On the other hand, these same items are often used as materialistic status symbols, which makes her bragging about purchasing them a serious call for attention and an attempt to make herself look superior because of what she owns.

Myself, I couldn't care less for name-brand anything, especially when it comes to clothing. It's the same shirt as somebody else makes, but they charge you $40 so you can wear their logo (and be their advertising). When I see people clamoring for these things, I wonder if they are buying them for the quality or for the status. Quality is worth something to me, but status based around possessions is not.

I think it's different from people making and sharing videos of their accomplishments, because those accomplishments take talent. Whether it's building a CNC router or getting 100% on "Through the Fire and the Flames", those people had to work hard to achieve that level and that's something to be celebrated. It makes me feel good to see other people doing that -- to know that it's possible and that people are doing it. But purchasing stuff at the local store? Anybody (with enough disposable income) can do that. It's no better than rappers flashing rolls of money and expensive cars; I'm happy for you, but do I really care what you have? Is it supposed to make me like you more? It certainly doesn't make me feel better about myself. I find it insulting; I have enough trouble trying to pay the bills, while they brag about having so much extra money that they can buy overpriced stuff that they have no use for.

In my case, I see most of these purchases as a waste -- she's paying too much money for a substandard product just because it has a nice name on it. It's hard for me to get excited about that. Sure, there are probably a million other girls her age who want to watch this and covet, but it still pains me to think that she's doing this only as a status symbol.

One thing people in general have yet to learn is that published content should be made for the viewer, not the author. If nobody cares what you have to say, there's no point in saying it in public. Go ahead and say it, but nobody will listen. If you want people to hear you, you have to give them something that interests them. YouTube has an awful lot of material that is only of interest to the author themselves and has no relevance to any larger audience.

RevEng, on the internet there is an audience for everything. Nothing is too mundane.

The haul vlogger is having fun. She's communicating with and participating in her community. There's an awful lot of people out there who would benefit from doing exactly that.

Let me know when you've come back from Victoria's Secret.

I agree that these are basically less-geeky versions of all those unboxing videos, status connotations and all. To each their own: such is the terrible beauty of Youtube.

Still, I wonder why these purchasing postmortems aren't just done at the mall. Solo shopping trips by teens strike me as a bit depressing.

(If one of these girls actually finished her presentation by showing off a steampunk wheelchair, though, I'd be totally impressed)

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

-Bertrand Russell

I used to think making videos of things you bought was dumb, but honestly I've found them useful for some products like car stereo equipment and some computer equipment. I just recently bought a new car stereo that's new on the market and posted a bunch of videos of it online so people could see what it looks like in action and make a good decision if that's something they want to buy.

wow - i haven't been to a mall in 10 years - this will be a great way to catch up! and to paraphrase Andy Warhol - In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes - to someone else.

I have to be honest, as a student planning to go into marketing, I really hope these videos catch on. It's an inside look at actual american consumerism. No charts and numbers, just actual people being super candid.

Sure it's not perfect, but I can see this being pretty dang helpful.

Subjects reading preferences:

Lauren Conrad

J. K. Rowling

Stephanie Meyer

Just sayin'

This is no different than grown men posting twitter pics of their newest bespoke shirt, or newest pair of kicks in a custom colorway.

Who would guess that the public is actually interested in a strangers vanity affliction?