There are many ways to relax. You can go for a walk, call a friend or read a book. But sometimes it rains, friends are busy or your book is boring. What then?
I have a suggestion: watch as random, unrelated objects are mercilessly crushed in the mechanical jaws of a hydraulic press.
I love hydraulic press videos! I like to watch them between meetings, after a busy day at work, when I’m trying to turn off my brain before bed. They’re cheaper than a massage and seeing a Hydro Flask crumple like tissue under the pressure of heavy machinery feels like a warm bath to my brain.
While this may sound like a niche pursuit, it is not. There are several YouTube channels dedicated to hydraulic press videos, but Hydraulic press channelwith over 9.7 million subscribers, is the most popular. The videos regularly get tens of millions of views. For example, Top 100 Best Hydraulic Press Moments | Satisfying crushing composition has over 63m views, and shows a press crushing a stack of sticky notes, a Rubik’s Cube, a pumpkin, crayons and a Furby. The crayons and pumpkin are my favorite because I like how the wax and pulp express the edges.
“Our most popular videos are compilations of random stuff,” says Lauri Vuohensilta, the channel’s founder.
Vuohensilta, a factory owner in Finland, started making the videos in 2015. He says having a YouTube channel has been “a longtime dream”. He wanted his videos to reach a large audience, and knew he would have to appeal to an international audience. But he was worried that his English was not strong enough to tell them. Inspired by videos he saw of a red hot metal ball by melting items like a block of ice or jelly, he realized that he didn’t need to talk – he could just film clips in his workshop.
“The press is perfect,” he says. “You just put the items there and pull the lever.” It was easy to come up with ideas for what to film. “There’s only so much you can crush,” he says.
He says a lot of his audience is like me: “people who just want to watch interesting and satisfying clips that look good. Something easy after a long day.”
But why does watching a Furby get crushed into goo feel so satisfying? And why are so many millions of people obsessed with these videos?
“Oh my God, [hydraulic press videos] is so addictive,” says Dr. Rosanna Guadagno, associate professor of persuasive information systems at the University of Oulu, on a video call. “I’ll check more after our call.”
There are a number of factors that determine whether content will go viral online, Guadagno says: timing, how many followers the poster has and the emotional response it causes. “Unfortunately, algorithms have figured out that outrage is one of the things that goes viral and keeps us busy with social media apps,” she says. But users also want to share positive emotions: “Things that we find funny, cute and interesting also go viral.”
to newsletter promotion
Additionally, no cultural context or understanding is required to enjoy a hydraulic press video. Anyone from any background can take satisfaction in seeing something crushed. “It speaks to everyone’s inner child,” she says.
Paradoxically, the fact that this is a slightly bizarre corner of the internet also contributes to the videos’ popularity.
“People like to share surprising, interesting or remarkable content because it gives them social currency,” explains Dr. Jonah Berger, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, and author of the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On . “It makes them look smart, special and in the know.”
The brutality of seeing something crushed in a heavy machine can also serve as an emotional release, says Dr. Charlynn Ruan, founder and CEO of the Thrive Psychology Group.
“It makes perfect sense to me that this is popular,” says Ruan. “These videos tap into our natural human desire for action and destruction and the cathartic feeling of building or destroying something.”
She says the videos remind her of rage rooms, where you can pay to spend time breaking up furniture or electronics. Ruan sometimes recommends anger chambers to her clients, as a way for them to tap into anger and aggression in a healthy, limited way (and not have to clean up afterwards). This can be especially helpful for women, she says, who are often conditioned not to express their anger.
While watching crayons squish onto a screen isn’t quite the same as hitting a television with a baseball bat, Ruan says visualization is powerful, and we can still experience some of the same emotional benefits just by picturing something. She says the videos “are not a substitute for physical expressions” but that they can be “great little cathartic moments in the middle of your day, or when you don’t have time and space to express yourself in other ways “.
So, the next time you need to relax or release frustration, pull up a video of some apples or candles being crushed. My personal advice: fast forward through the glass-shattering parts – those actually stress me out.
