why do i like reaction videos

The tyranny of the contextualizer online is their constant and immovable presence between the reader and the text, the listener and the music, the viewer and the film. We now reach for context before engaging with the content. When my first interaction with a song is through TikTok reactions, I no longer encounter the work as it is, on my own. It... See more

Works of art were being contextualized before by friends, curators, record store employees, grandiloquent critics, etc. Your friend’s favorite line in a song became a hook for your own appreciation of it. Seeing how people reacted to a song’s pivotal moment at a house party made clear the song’s high point. Hearing a professor rave about a shot in... See more

The American economist Tyler Cowen often uses the refrain “Context is that which is scarce” to describe that while art, information and content may be abundant, understanding—the ability to situate that information within a meaningful context—remains a rare and valuable resource. Para-content thrives precisely because it claims to provide this... See more

This is not new. The radio DJ played a similar role. Think about the infamous DJ Funk Flex live premiere of JAY-Z and Kanye West’s Otis on July 20th, 2011. Funk Flex is performing a kind of interpretive choreography that affirms the song’s cultural resonance, bombs and all. This guidance acts as a compass for audiences, helping them align their... See more

The notable shift in our era of para-content is that the reader (reader as a broad term for the audience of a media artifact) has fully abdicated the horizon-making to the “contextualizer”. Contextualizers , such as reaction video creators or fan analysts, guide the process by highlighting specific elements, framing interpretations, and modeling... See more

Specifically, German literary theorist Hans Robert Jauss coined the term “Horizon of Expectation” (“Erwartungshorizont” in German) to describe the encounter between text and audience. In essence, this word refers to the framework through which an individual understands, interprets, and evaluates a text, relying on the cultural norms and standards... See more

The notable shift in our era of para-content is that the audience has fully abdicated the horizon-making to the “contextualizer”.

the meaning of a text is not a fixed property inscribed by its creator but a dynamic creation that unfolds at the juncture of the text and its audience.

Para-content makers may be called “creators” or “influencers” but their actual role is that of “ contextualizer ”, the shapers of a cultural artifact’s horizon.