Stripteasing becomes audiophile! The prevailing collective madness of unboxing: what is it? And why is it all the rage?

In a world where complete nudity of men and women is now just an easy click away, this type of show has lost part of its attractiveness and is slowly falling into oblivion. However, the voyeuristic instinct inherent in human beings cannot be put to sleep and thanks to the internet and YouTube in particular, a new type of striptease has become very fashionable, and it's called unboxing.

Literally it means procedure of opening a package. The internet is now full of videos where a person slowly opens a package of a consumer good and shows every single content to the viewer. This trend supposedly started with tech products in 2006, when a company filmed the unboxing of the Nokia E61 mobile phone. Google Trends shows that interest in the term “unboxing” started at the end of 2006 and has been ongoing ever since, increasing fairly steadily, albeit with a slight decline after 2022.

Could the audiophile community be immune from this perverse trend? Obviously not, and so YouTube, and even the websites and Facebook pages of HiFi stores, are crowded with videos where someone shows how to open the packaging of a product, typically a new release, then he extracts every single part with a smug manner, describing its appearance and function (the owner's manual, various accessories, etc.) until revealing the completely naked body, oh no, sorry, the device in all its splendour. Often these unboxing sessions are the sweet prelude to a sort of review of the product, but most of the time everything ends, after at least 10 minutes of video, with the exposition of the content and its description, from every angle.

The reason why these unboxing videos are long is twofold: on one hand, only long videos allow effective remuneration by YouTube (so those who make them earn more if they dilute the content), on the other hand, prolonging the wait is the true engine of desire, exactly like in traditional striptease shows. The most popular and unscrupulous unboxers title their useless videos as review or test, to attract more clicks and views. Obviously they don't review anything except your IQ ;-)

The voyeuristic aspect is, however, just one of the components of the success of these videos: the main point being “I watch what I can't afford”, whether it's a nice body or a cool HiFi component. If it weren't such a sad thing, we would have to smile about it.

However, there is another aspect, more profound, and it is what is called vicariousness, that is: one enjoys a sensory experience through another person's senses, exactly like in the sexual paraphilia which involves pleasure in watching one's partner perform sexual acts with a third person, without being directly involved. In other words: I can imagine touching that device and even possessing it, through the hands and words of the unboxer.

Hence, it's not surprising that companies, Apple first and foremost, have dramatically increased their attention to the design of the packaging, which must contain many gadgets, possibly mysterious “Chinese boxes”, to convey to the consumer the idea of having purchased something precious and exclusive. Attention is therefore shifted from the product to its presentation which, evidently, is very dangerous, because we purchase the product, not a representation of it and our money is real, not a representation. I'm afraid this trend aims at masking the real quality of the product (which might be low, with respect to price), a bit like the retouched/Photoshopped photos of men and women on social media. They all seem fascinating actors on social media, although they are human disasters in real life ;-)

Finally, I would like to underline that there is a third aspect, more subtle, which recalls the phenomenon called window shopping (see the corresponding Wikipedia page) or virtual shopping. More and more people seem to love virtual shopping: they go around all the shop windows, or even wear clothes or try products, although they have no intention of purchasing. In other words it is how to make yourself sated by just smelling the aromas that come out of a good restaurant. Many window shoppers assert that this virtual practice is as satisfying as actual shopping, also because the latter is deprived of the sense of guilt for the money spent. The advent of on-line shops has taken window shopping to the extreme.

Defenders of unboxing argue that these videos allow a potential buyer to really see what he will get once he opens the package or box. May I ask who has ever had doubts that the object of desire wasn't really inside the package? The packaging, for a HiFi component, must have a sole function: protect the item in case of shipping, nothing else. When I start to see precious woods, velvets, satin fabrics, and various gadgets, the feeling that automatically arises in me is that they are trying to make fun of me. Do a Porsche or a Ferrari need packaging, for example? They don't.

Conclusions

This new trend of unboxing only exacerbates in me the feeling that this hobby has now taken a very dangerous drift, where form dominates over substance and function. This is fine for HiFi manufacturers, as they can sell products that have very little truly innovative or concrete value, loading up on all the formal aspects: materials, finishes, precious packaging, manuals and so on. What is this for? It's simple: to justify the race for increasing prices. Appearance and high price are two key factors in being able to sell a mediocre quality product. I'd like to see more aware enthusiasts and less...chickens to be plucked but, judging by the “merchandise” seen at HiFi shows, where we are constantly getting more appearance than substance, I fear that mine will remain just a vain hope.

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