On-screen objects are wasted so the self can appear as the real commodity

Evidence

The representation of exchange on YouTube is an alibi to produce a different commodity that is exchanged: a self. At the same time, things and objects, traditional commodities that are bought and sold to appear on YouTube, are, in fact, wasted. The self appears only against a background of waste, of trash, of useless excess, as objects are rendered valueless beyond their appearance as one part of an infinite, everlasting series—a series that only ends in complete and total exhaustion. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 208

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: influencer haul/unboxing videos as performed waste — the object’s destruction is the labor that produces the self-commodity. Analyzable against mainstream ‘consumerism’ critiques.