Catnip for kids

I once found a YouTube video of a woman, who we didn't actually get to see except for her hands opening egg shaped play dough to reveal tiny trinket like toys. As she unearthed toy figures one at a time she arranged them all in a line.

My grand daughter was transfixed by this unboxing and what really surprised me was how often she would choose to watch this over anything else. And that the auto play went from one such video to hundreds of other identical videos. All with exactly the same structure.

Clearly this was a popular concept and there it was lucrative.

Like catnip for kids.

Children learn by repetition, and they crave it. The mindless repetition is how they pick up language and pretty much everything. These videos were tapping into that, except they had nothing to teach. No lesson.

Empty carbs for the brain.

M Parak
May 2019