Word of the Day: Haul
Sharing videos of shopping sprees sounds crazy. Maybe it is.
haul
in short: a shopping spree.
a vlog titled "Makeup Haul" or "(Store Name) Haul" is a video showing a shopping spree in that given area, showing products or clothing that will usually be featured in future How To, or tutorial videos.
"Hey guys! I'm here with a back-to-school makeup haul! I should have a tutorial with these products up in a little bit"
"If you were wondering where I got these products, refer back to my Haul vlog.
Hauls are the shopping equivalent of a dopamine-chasing overdose. That is the essence of the idea, which is less about any one thing than about the sheer number of things. It’s the elevation of quantity over quality, muchness as an end in itself. Like social media itself, and smartphones, the haul creates its own subset of compulsive behavior.
“It accelerates the consumption addiction,” Ms. Greene said. That addiction isn’t officially a part of the DSM-5, the most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but it is recognized by the Cleveland Clinic and the journal World Psychiatry, among other official bodies.
By embracing hauls, we are training ourselves, in a Pavlovian way, to chase the thrill of delivery, the joy of unboxing. By sharing endless haul videos, we are seducing other people into sharing our compulsion for more and more and more, because the more people who buy into any one idea, the less bad we feel about our own behavior.
But by focusing on the stuff — on the pleasure of piles, the allure of excess — each thing becomes less important, which means it is even more disposable. When the excitement of getting all that stuff wears off, the stuff itself doesn’t really matter. It just takes up space. And that means it’s easy to throw away.
| Vanessa Friedman, The New Amazon Haul Storefront Is Feeding Our Endless Need to Shop