Thanks to Storyblocks for sponsoring this video.
[pop instrumental]
All right, Josh, I got a bit of a predicament here.
I like tech. That's probably what my channel
was inspired by in the first place
is that, I do the kind of stuff
and then I just make videos of like--
if I was into it, that's the video
I would want to watch, right?
But I also feel bad to a certain extent of it.
We've talked about this, you and I,
in multiple ways on multiple platforms about how YouTubers
are part of the problem when it comes to consumerism
and endlessly pushing products and that kind of thing.
And I feel that there's bound to be some of that
regardless of what kind of channel you do,
if it's this type of channel.
But you can be heavily doing it or lightly doing it.
And the one that has been, I guess
really difficult for me is that sometimes
I kind of just want to show and tell something,
but I don't want to feed into it too bad.
I think the classic example would be
like an unboxing where I don't like using the word, "unboxing"
or doing "unboxings" because
I feel like it promotes packaging--
I'm not a big unboxing guy, but I do--
There is a virtue in watching those
because if you're wanting to know what's physically inside--
-Totally! -Like, what it comes with,
like that's what you would watch.
I've never found the value in doing that on my channel.
Like, "Oh, here's the box and here's what is inside.
And this is, oh!
Rub this on your skin. Oh, the pe...
I'm not into that like--
There are some things that I do like though.
Not the box but if the product has really nice textures,
I personally will enjoy that.
Yeah.
And maybe other people will too.
It's this fine line. And I guess I want your thoughts.
So I'm not proposing that I do unboxings
but what if I wanted to, you know,
just sort of share how I was excited about a product,
but it's not like a...
A big technical Gerald Undone review thing.
But instead, just kind of like, "You guys gotta check this out,"
and I could whip open the box and be like,
"Here's what you get." I could throw the box away
because this isn't an unboxing,
I'm not trying to glorify consumerism.
But like, "Look how cool this thing is."
But then just by doing that,
am I not being like, "Buy more things!"
That's kind of what I feel like I'm doing.
So, there's a lot to unpack here
but there's a big core topic that kind of gets me going,
which is that my soul is kind of being slowly eroded away
at how much I'm telling people to buy things
and making them-- I find myself caught in crossroads.
Like at one end, my job is to show people
like, what products to buy
and what I'm using them for
and to get them excited about the tech.
And maybe educate them on how to use stuff
so that they know how to do it. And I am rewarded for that.
I am paid in affiliate links or sometimes brand deals
or, you know, the brands will physically pay me to do
a video and show them how to use this product.
Yeah, showcase or whatever. Yeah.
Exactly. That's my job.
Like, I don't want to step out of that lane.
But on the other hand,
I see what society is going through,
I see how much garbage is in our oceans.
I see the inequality between the rich and the poor
and just how that gap seems to be growing.
And it's all blended with this kind of consumerism--
[phone ringing]
Oh, hold on, getting a call. Who's calling me?
What brand is calling me wanting me to shut the hell up?
Nobody.
Shut it down. Shut it down. [laughter]
Shut this guy-- [tapping] You signed that contract.
You signed that contract.
You said you weren't gonna talk about that.
You're not allowed to-- We're listening in.
Or even just like, you know how people
get rid of a phone every year, whatever.
That one is like, that one's tough for me too.
Oh my G-- How do-- I'm sorry.
Dude, that's probably my biggest gripe with Apple.
I hate the fact that they make us feel that this
$1400 phone is now obsolete a year later.
Like, do you realize like there's more tech
in that phone than the first space shuttle that we put up?
You know what I mean? Like, it's amazing how--
And yet it's obsolete?
Like, you have to get the new one?
Did you by any chance watch Veritasium's video
on planned obsolescence?
I haven't, but I'm familiar with the term.
Where they bake-- they limit right to repair, bake in--
-Right. -You get three years of software
like, those kinds of things. And I agree, I don't ever
use Apple or promote Apple for the same reason.
But I'll also be fair in saying it's not only Apple,
different companies have different ways
to get in there--
I just find Apple-- They're the biggest one doing it.
So it's the most apparent.
They're setting the tone.
You know, I'm sure other brands that I will do repeated--
I'm not gonna say their names --but repeated videos on,
they are 100% repeat offenders on planned obsolescence.
And like I myself, I'm now getting
a small little experience with that in terms of Orbit
and offering my own product and being like-- You know,
we're not a publicly traded company or anything like that.
But you know, thinking in terms of, what products
do you sell down the line?
Like, in one hand, you want to build the ultimate product
that's gonna have value, that's gonna have good reviews
and that people are gonna really enjoy
and find value in. But on the other hand,
if you make it too good,
what are they gonna buy next year?
Like, if you have shareholders,
if you're a publicly traded company,
you have to have revenue. You know what I mean?
There's a lot of influence always trickling down
that leads to a lot of, like, evil seeming action.
Like, it's a huge system.
I don't think there's an easy fix, but it does--
It eats away at me a little bit that I'm a part of that.
And I'm like telling people to buy things
when half the time what they really need
is just technique, you know what I mean?
Well, and the very platform that you use
is sort of stacked against you in that way, too,
because you've probably seen videos--
If I make a video on a fun lighting technique
or I make a video on the next camera,
we know who's winning that battle.
You know what it is? I know what it is. I figured it out.
I was thinking about it like, this morning.
People love excuses to not do work, right?
So like, if you do a lighting tutorial,
you're showing them the steps on how
to do something-- That's work for them.
That's a fun way to look at it--
Yeah, but if you do a video where you're like
this camera shoots 16-bit RAW linear
and look at the imagery that it gives me,
you're giving them an excuse for the camera to do the work.
And one has, sort of, homework and the other one
is just like, entertainment.
I think a lot of us really do like being sold.
We like buying things. We like the fantasy like,
this device is gonna solve our problems.
That you're gonna get beautiful imagery
with just this camera body alone and no lens attached,
you can get this-- You know what I mean?
You don't realize the $6000 lens that was attached to it
that actually has more characteristics
of the image than the actual camera body.
You can buy the solution, you know,
versus learning.
Watch me next week, literally next week:
I'm like, "This camera solves everything!
It does everything for you.
Look at this. And it even made you a sandwich. Pow!
It's a tricky kind of like, fence or whatever
the term is, where you can go fall on either side of it--
Are you just selling things because,
"Yeah, I get rewarded the same way."
Affiliate links, all that stuff.
And if I say a product's really good,
buy it, then I'm gonna make
a few points when somebody buys it.
But at the same time,
I don't want to feel like
I can't talk about products that I find interesting
just because of the issue that's going on
with consumerism and that kind of thing.
How do I make it where I'm just--
I'm a magazine. But then again, magazines are all about selling
stuff too! So it's the same problem, right?
You've got to fill ads, and everything.
There's no way around it. You can't escape it.
If people stop selling things
and other people stop buying things,
the economy would just--
So how do I do an unboxing?
Again, I'm not gonna focus on the box part.
In fact, I would love if the boxes were just,
like I said, recycled stuff and I'd be like,
"Ooh, nice recycled box, you know, good choice,"
And then you throw it.
I mean, that is one thing that I do appreciate when I see--
You know, for example, Polar Pro.
I love it. They used to do elaborate, glossy,
fancy stuff and now they're just--
And now it's paper. And that's something I appreciate.
I'm like that's something that I want--
And that's something I actually will unbox
just to show they're making a good choice.
Look at the box, you know,
and I won't show the fancy box.
Just stop making [goat bleats] out of plastic.
Just make it out of paper.
And it doesn't have to be over-elaborate
so that it's bigger, then it's harder to ship and everything.
You know, it's crazy...
Now that I have this whole kind of rounded experience
of manufacturing and the Kickstarter
and just like building a product and like,
it's so much cheaper to go with foam.
Certain materials that are petroleum based
are just easier and cheaper. And you know, it is an expense.
But also, there's logistics behind it
because you have to remember,
if you're building a big product,
it's going to be packaged and stacked.
Like, they're going to stack forty of these tall
and thirty wide. They're gonna be on a shipping container
which is gonna be rocked around at sea
and they're gonna be loaded onto a train
and then onto, like--
And then parked sideways in the Suez Canal.
Exactly. And then all of that stuff--
And then it's delivered to Gerald.
And Gerald opens it up and he's like,
"Oh, I can't-- I hate the smell."
You know, here's a bad review just 'cause, like,
you went with this one packaging material that smells
like glue and then Gerald Undone
completely Undid your entire manufacturing process.
And it's like, you know what--
That's why I haven't reviewed the Orbit.
It smells too funky and I didn't want to throw you under the bus.
I would give this product five out of five.
But you know, it smelt kind of like glue.
So I give it five stink lines-- [laughs]
Aw, jeez. And ya got the stink lines and everything?
I'm hopeful for the future.
Like, they have mushroom packaging.
I haven't got my hands on that yet
-but I've read about that-- -Like mushroom mushrooms?
What they do is they take, I think it's a bin of hay
and they have this type of mycelium mushroom that will
start breaking down the hay.
And as it breaks down the hay,
it grows into this mushroom block,
which is... It emulates foam.
But a fungus? It's like a foam fungus?
Yeah, exactly.
-And-- -You're not just packing
your Orbit with cremini. [laughs]
Yeah, it'll be great. And you eat it later. You know.
[laughing]
-It's great. -A little sauté.
Tonight's specialty: white wine, um
rosemary capers, you know.
Little sautéed in butter, some garlic, and Orbit packaging.
But yeah, I guess it grows,
into this shape, like they'll make a mold
and it'll fill up the mold and then they pull it out
and it's totally mushroom and then you use that.
But I would love to see that.
I don't think my manufacturers in China have that yet,
but I'll ask.
While Josh finds out if his manufacturers can ship
his products inside of a giant mushroom or something,
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What's the best approach then?
Like for instance, I'm not gonna do it right now,
but I've got a whole bunch of computer gear
sitting over here because I'm gonna build a new editing rig.
if I wanted to make a video being like,
"These parts are sweet," and I'm not trying
to sell the parts, I just think the parts are sweet.
But there's actually the downside too
where this last year's been one of the hardest years
ever for a lot of different tech sourcing.
So there's also the side of me where it's like,
I don't want to be flexing on everybody
with these computer parts
because they're easier for me to get than they are
for the general public. So then, I make a video--
Look at this cool part
and then everybody would be like,
"Yeah, I wish I could get that."
But I, you know, it's a tough-- What do I do?
How do I share that I'm into it?
I think everyone watching this will agree that you have
definitely worked hard enough to deserve that.
So if you're getting front of the line perks
and sort of like, purchasing power
for these components that are hard to source or sold out
or just, you can't get a hold of them, go for it.
Don't feel bad about it because--
But how do I do it in a way where it's not just--
Would you say, if you're viewer,
is there a point where you evaluate it more like, OK,
this person's trying to sell me something versus
this person just digs it and I'm watching this
for entertainment. You know, what makes your needle move?
From my point of view, if it's a hard to come by part,
I want to know if it's worth the squeeze.
So I'm vicariously living through you
and I'm hoping that you enjoy it.
I don't think that you're bragging or, you know,
you're flexing your star power by getting the CPU
that I can't get a hold of.
I'm more interested in the CPU and what it can do.
So, I think if you can get the part
and you have the platform, it's your responsibility to do
a video on it to show us honestly how it performs
and what's the cool things that you can do with it.
-It's yours, buddy. -But see, Josh,
that's the like, what I'm doing now,
the like, the deep dives that are--
What if I just want to be like, "Look at this, it's cool!"
[laughing]
Maybe there's a way where you can just do product video
or like, not do just product videos but where you do
a product video but you do it...
Maybe you... I don't know if the companies
would really want you to do this,
but where you bake into the video,
something like, some kind of sentence
or two where you just flat out say,
"Well, let's not all go buyin' stuff just 'cause it's new,
you know, and like maybe you--
But you also don't want to be like
some kind of like, virtue signaler who's not actually
helping the problem,
but you're just making-- pretending that you are.
But maybe there's a way to still do your job but also--
I kind of think that civilization is starting
to wind down anyway
and we probably got like 50 years left anyway.
So like might as well like enjoy it.
And that's-- We'll put the button on the video
-with that. [laughs] -Bang.
Josh, how could I go about doing unboxings while still
being mentally aware of the impacts?
We got like 50 years left anyway before civilization
just completely like, obliterates itself
and no longer exists. So just do it.
If you want to unbox, unbox.
♪