The domestication of privacy-invasive technology on YouTube

Unboxing the Amazon Echo with the online warm expert

Bibliographic Data

ID21690174
AuthorsStephen J Neville (0000-0001-7731-7418, York University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume27
Issue5
Pages1288-1307
Publication date2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConvergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-8565 • E-ISSN: 1748-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354856520970729
OpenAlexW3106274650
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited35

The purpose of this article is to explore how unboxing videos on YouTube contribute to the domestication of privacy-invasive technology. Further, the objective is to show how consumer influencers on YouTube adapt to the flexible persona of the online warm expert (OWE) which expands the concept of the ‘warm expert’ from the domestication literature ( Bakardjieva, 2005 , Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life . London: Sage Publications). I argue that the OWE and unboxing discourse advance corporate interests of surveillance capitalism in home environments by promoting the circulation of emergent consumer technologies and eschewing meaningful discussion of privacy and surveillance issues. A case study of the Amazon Echo smart speaker and Alexa, its voice-activated personal assistant, is presented. The research consists of a qualitative thematic analysis of unboxing videos ( N = 73) and viewer comments on YouTube. Unboxing discourse reflects normative consumer culture values that are detached from critical discussions of surveillance or the informational privacy framework of end-user agreements. As a practical implication, the study helps look beyond the household and traditional social relationships in the domestic sphere to understand how technological domestication is being shaped in a paradigm of consumer culture that is fused with the infrastructural and cultural logics of the Internet and social media

Advertising · Business · Domestication · Everyday life · Influencer marketing · Internet privacy · Normative · Persona · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social media · Social science · Sociology · The Internet · Thematic analysis · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Marketing

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