SRSLY What Does IKEA Say About The Human Condition? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

[@kurzgesagt]

[@theneedledrop]

NEW STUDIO YAY!!!!!

[@OlleLindestad]

Swedish person here. IKEA is just an acronym with no meaning in and of itself, so feel free to pronounce it any way you like. (And before you ask, yes, I am backed by the entire nation of Sweden on this. I asked. There aren't that many of us.)

[@RainWhitehart]

I actually like to go to ikea and sketch interiors. There aren't that many people with nice houses that will let you come over and leave you alone for an hour while you draw their stuff but through that I have developed a sort of fondness for it. The food is cheap and not half bad and when actually shopping I never found the downstairs to be that confusing. You just look up the number of the thing you want and then find it. It's all really organised and efficient. Also they have the chepest 8"x11" frames I have ever found.

[@micro-babe]

That's actually a really good idea. I draw a lot of portraits and most of that stems from my inability to draw chairs and fill background space.

[@Farvanna434]

My experiences have been similar. They're also really great for playing hide and seek.

[@lort8334]

0:55 Let's take a moment to appreciate that he knows sex and gender as two different things.

[@PhilosophyTube]

Could you say a bit more about what you mean when you say humans need meaning in their lives? Do you mean that in an existentialist way, like we need objective truth or meaning? Because Camus would disagree with you there. Or do you mean it more in a Korsgaard sort of a way, like we need identity in order to act, in which case how does that work?

[@thatotherguy27]

I think that Ikea furniture has roughly the same creativity potential as Lego in the right hands. I have a 95% Ikea apartment, and most of it is standard in its assembly, but my entertainment center is made out of 4 different pieces of furniture that have been screwed together in a manner for which there was no manual. The kicker, though, is that the extra screws came with the furniture. Are they trying to make us more creative?

[@MIRobin22]

Nice! I never thought of doing that, but since much of their furniture has compatible components you could do a lot more with a bit of creativity. Although, unlike Lego, thinking outside the instructions manual is probably outside of the "authorial intent".

[@thatotherguy27]

Intent was surrendered when I bought the stuff, lol.

[@fridajohannedrud]

It is actually part of it, encouraging individuality and creativity, by taking a piece of standardized furniture (or several) and make it into your own.

[@popokiobake]

OMG

[@HeyTharGeorgey]

I've never been to Ikea but now I might go in search of meaning to life, the universe and everything.

[@pbsideachannel]

...and Swedish candy!

[@samsingsongss]

+PBS Idea Channel dude their cookies are the best

[@casualfridays4051]

*Pokemon Pokecoins* twitter.com/dailyoffers98/status/755364565404319746?v=xJ9tDuPHirE?v=xJ9tDuPHirE

[@MarshmallowRadiation]

The reason people like assembling their furniture might actually be (at least partly) a trust issue. If you buy a mass-assembled piece of furniture (or anything really) you have no way of knowing if there are any crippling flaws in that product and who to blame for it. If you assemble it yourself and it sucks, chances are the reason it sucks is due to your own inability to follow the instructions perfectly and not some corporate scheme to make a product self-destruct as soon as the warranty expires. This ties in to the phenomenon in humanistic psychology known as the internal locus of control effect, which means that human beings are generally happier when they think of good or bad events coming from their own achievements and mistakes rather than their environment and random chance. If you assemble the furniture yourself, then you can more easily blame yourself for how it turns out.

[@amegenshiken]

Yeah! This is why PBS Idea Channel is cool! It inspires awesome interesting ideas in others, which is then added to the comments, then the best of them are responded to in the next video. Even if *someone* else here (no, I'm not talking about you Noah Fence) doesn't think there's anything worth while in the video itself, it can act as furtile soil for more interesting ideas to bloom (in the form of either "ideas with higher quality" or "higher quantity of ideas", of course both would be the best).

[@serapiakim955]

That's a great analysis! Not only that, assembling our own furniture is one way of proving our capability as sapient beings who can create things and make things "our belongings". Us humans are intellectually curious creatures that grow through self-analysis and exploration, a process aided by simple tasks such as putting pieces of a chair together.

[@oddrey52]

While I have never assembled anything from Ikea, last summer I helped build a roof over my parents' new porch, and I can categorically say that at least for me self assembly does not make me trust the product any more at all. I had never been afraid of falling through a roof before, but I refuse to stand on the one I helped build because I am so aware of what lies beneath those shingles. All my family who helped build the roof agrees. But we built it ourselves and would do it again because it saves money and also there is a sense of accomplishment that comes with it. My guess is that these are the same two things that attract people to Ikea's self assembled furniture. I don't know what if anything this says anything about the human condition. It probably just says that I shouldn't pursue a career in construction.

[@MIRobin22]

I always figured people like Ikea's self-assembly model because, you know, you don't have to rent a moving van to get your bookshelf home since it's in a nice compact box. The lego-like joy of putting it together is an added bonus.

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

oddrey52 Its that too. But I think the trust comes more in the form of knowing you didn't/can/did fuck up vs having no clue if the long line of manufacturers fucked up at all. I recently built a Billy bookcase from IKEA. I'm not good with assembly, hell I hated legos as a kid cause it required me to build and think at the same time. So I know this bookcase might one day come toppling down cause I still have one odd screw thingy left over. But at least I'm aware of the danger and what went wrong, i.e. me. I can trust the case in varying degrees of "This book will be fine" and "OH GOD GET THAT THING OFF OF THERE!!". With an already built piece I have no clue whether to never worry or panic or who to direct all this emotion to. My couch could suffocate me (it so could, you don't know) and I'd never seeing it coming, but that bookcase will kill me and I okay knowing that cause I built it with the potential to destroy life.

[@PsyX99]

I'm not a human... I just don't care about ikea. But what Steam says about me ? XD

[@FooPanda]

Otherkin then?

[@Deverlaid]

Yes, you are human. Fat neckbeards count as human.

[@soppsau]

I can smell the neckbeard...

[@triton62674]

Steam says: SUMMER SALE 5 ALL!

[@Deverlaid]

UncleJoePlays >classy >fedora-wearing scrublord >M'LADY

[@NateDoyle]

I find going to Ikea a stressful endeavor. I'd like to know what you think of Ikea Hacks. It seems to stand athwart both aspects of Ikea. It's taking the rank consumerism and mixing it about to get something that resembles the ideal situation of the show room. The original purpose of the piece has been subverted by the hacker. Seems like there's something interesting going on there.

[@OlleLindestad]

Thumbs up for visibility! I just looked up Ikea Hacks. That is AWESOME.

[@NateDoyle]

I use some hacked Ikea stuff for a standing desk. It's an intriguing practice.

[@Vanne89]

Ikea is not so happy about the hacks, actually trying to get them offline.

[@lennonjohn2]

Idea channel, thank you so much for putting up the dismemberment plan album in your background. That picture is from a show put on by a non-profit organization I volunteer and preform for: FAA. FAA is led by youth for the youth of Fredericksburg, VA. It puts on shows and classes to entertain and educate the artists of the next generation of adults. Thank you again.

[@phabelgreene7875]

I'd like to see what Mike has to say about the latest Adventure Time episode, "Breezy." For those of you who don't know, Adventure Time is a children's show about a boy and his dog on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Most adventures are fun and kid-friendly, but it has a reputation for occasionally surprising its viewers by sprinkling in episodes that revolve around much darker themes. "Breezy" was one of these episodes, as it revolves around the theme of adolescent sexual confusion/frustration. Mike, if you're reading this, we know you're an Adventure Time fanboy! Please discuss this episode! (Perhaps you could relate this to the relationship between artists and censors? Maybe discuss whether or not true art could exist without boundaries to push, and whether the censors make artists more elegant in the way they express certain themes or force them to fit into a destructive mold?)

[@BariumCobaltNitrog3n]

This is a brilliant channel and I like that you talk almost as fast as I think, but still articulate very well. People may mis-underestimate how well you enunciate words and maintain a very fast pace. John and Hank Green and Michael (VS) get comments about foreign speakers finding them hard to understand (mostly Hank) but I have never seen any such comments on here. I know, seeing nothing is proof of nothing, but still. I just wanted to thank you for keeping up the well-defined yet blistering pace. Your asides and flash graphics are awesome too. Love it.

[@KabisCube]

The word Fräck is used.. wrong~. (5:03) For example, a person can be Fräck (very rude) to you, or an person and even an object can be Fräck (rad~, but close to offending) I can see how it might have been mistranslated, or just misunderstood. But even Google Translate gets it pretty spot on, which is why I'm so confused over how it was used to describe a queue. I might just be way to Swedish in me being so ok with queues, but I've never heard of anyone being so very excited or just outraged about how rude or cool and edgy a queue was. Though, I have to give credit for the perfect "oj oj oj oj oj" video that made me laugh so hard I had to rewind the video because I missed so much while laughing.

[@HoratioAccel]

Pretty sure they used it because it is close to the "f" word.

[@KabisCube]

TheCycloneRanger oooh *face palm* that makes sense.. I really need to stop taking things so literally.

[@landonrivers]

call it a line like a normal person. the fuck is a queue

[@MIRobin22]

TheCycloneRanger Also doubles as a Battlestar Galactica reference.

[@HoratioAccel]

MIRobin22 Cool. I'm not familiar with Battlestar Galactica.

[@MissiveCauseIMissYou]

Great video! First time commenting. I think one of the things that attracts people to Ikea products is, funnily enough, the individuality of it. Every piece of furniture in IKEA is identical, in some cases individual product designs blur together until you can't even distinguish a Billy from a Hemnes. They are all completely uniform, across the country. But that same uniformity provides a blank canvas on which we can project our own ideas and creativity. I think it is a common (thought very optimistic) notion that every person enters the world with the same basic potential, and that it is up to us to to take our raw materials and shape them in new, unique, self-defining ways. We make something uniquely of ourselves out of the same skills/traits/materials that others have. That might also be the joy of wandering through the lovely showrooms. We see the infinitely possible variations of the same products, calling for us to take them and make them our own. Anyway, hope that makes sense. Love the show!

[@EmperorFishFinger]

...but what if people like Ikea because they genuinely consider their products useful and convenient? Crazy, I know.

[@CptFUBAR]

12:00 That sudden realization. That was fun to watch!

[@tsuich00i]

I think *****'s analogue was apt, and I do not think you adequately addressed his point, as I can well imagine a Tea partier make use of the same defense. By the same token, said person might deflect, say, incriminating signs of racism within the movement, solely on the basis that those incidents were "fringe" in nature. I for one am somewhat fond of the idea of "positive eugenics"- ridding future generations of genetic diseases sounds great right? Well, with its history in mind, I can in no way excuse the many ethical dilemmas that arose in its time. And I acknowledge that, and while I don't mean to sound alarmist/absurdist, equating Feminism to Nazism, I think ALL Ideologies should begin on the basis that "mistakes where made, and we would like to move forward". Any idea that has been around long enough to withstand the scrutiny that comes with age and political prominence, has have to have had some "dark moments", and when people try to hide that, that idea becomes suspect, and the authenticity of its motivations come into question. One easy way to avoid this is to point out the differing views (within the same ideology), and planely stating; THIS IS NOT WHAT WE BELIEVE. In the heated cultural climate that gender topics find's itself in the midst of, feminism can come of as a bit hostile to opposition of any kind, or in other more severe ways, overtly offensive. By dismissing the social substrate that surrounds feminism, you ultimately do more to discourage discourse. Dare I say, such a way of speaking of things in absence of all its aspects is tantamount to anti-intellectualism. What could be more "uncritical" than that? The held-perception of an ideology is as important as the idea itself as it exists in the mind. If you cannot translate your conception of a thought into something sensible, communication is rendered a useless endevour, and further videos to the effect of attempting and failing in this regard, should remain unpublished, out of fear that we might "get the wrong idea" and grow spiteful in the process. P.S. I am still a big fan of the show, these are, for the record, my "two cents". I plead that you do not judge me to harshly. If I have made myself to appear "angery", I, in advance, extend my utmost and sincere regrets.

[@NamikazeChiKouu]

I can't stop laughing at the "Oj oj oj oj" xD

[@GroovingPict]

nice use of "fräck". Although I suspect it was purely coincidental as you were probably going for the English word "frack" rather than the actual Swedish "fräck". Happy coincidence though.

[@ArturoStojanoff]

what does fräck mean?

[@goodshowmanythanks]

Arturo Stojanoff "fräck" means "cheeky", but it should be "fräckt" in the context of standing in a line, as in the situation is cheeky.

[@GroovingPict]

kortaborsten it has several meanings, not just cheeky

[@Cerulean_Frost]

Arturo Stojanoff The first word I thought of was cheeky, bold would be another good word. It depends on how you use it though.

[@SebastianDalhed]

You can also use 'fräck' to say something is cool or awesome. At least where I grew up. There it wasn't common that anyone used it to say that something or someone is 'cheeky' as that would be considered old.

[@fullmatiz]

What you say about effort justification and and a sense of competence is very much what psychologist Ernest Dichter did to boost sales of Betty Crocker. Housewives felt that simply adding water to the cake mix was too simple, so he insisted Betty Crocker remove the powdered egg and make their customers take an extra step. This bit of extra work made women feel like they were working hard in the kitchen for when their husbands came home, thus removing the sense of guilt that accompanies buying a powdered cake mix. You feel useful because you have to put in your own work.

[@yaragorm]

I like swedish meatballs. I don't care if they sometimes have horse meat.

[@TheDaytripper114]

I love the narrator's cadence! I feel like a lot of educationalists move to quickly. You are great!

[@jbohlinger]

This video was LACKing. Eh? Eh? Eeeeeeehhhh?

[@xsnorksx9668]

No.

[@jbohlinger]

Put some MALM on that burn.

[@jbohlinger]

Clearly I'm a BLADVASS.

[@samantharichey1980]

Ive been thinking a lot about story construction lately because of nanowrimo, and I find it interesting how the Ikea experience resembles in itself a Hero's Journey. The Wikipedia article for the hero's journey, or the Monomyth, sums it up: "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." I dont know about you, but I can make a bunch of similarities between it and going to Ikea. Maybe this contributes to that "feeling of competence" you were talking about.

[@priryan1231]

I am the exact opposite. if I put it together I trust it less

[@lioleeuwerink1968]

This is the first video I've watched on my new Surface, instead of my mediocre phone... You are a beautiful and smooth moving man,

[@limew]

Oj oj oj oj!

[@RetryAgainAgain]

I really love when you disagree with the commenters, Mike. It makes you seem very honest and it's always interesting hearing you rebuke them.

[@JayconianArts]

I think your looking into this too deep.

[@aidanhorne6241]

Isn't that the entire basis of idea channel

[@JayconianArts]

Yup.

[@pbsideachannel]

I think you're probably right.

[@callmesuspect]

That's the basis of the channel, Idea channel is about over-examination.

[@davidl.3997]

***** Why does every person who discusses Marxism and related philosophies always use "bourgeois" and "proletarian", and why are those words pretty much never used in any other context?

[@kyleLOD]

Very recently I went to Ikea to buy new furniture for my room. I went with my brother who had never been to an Ikea. Before we went I told him "Get ready for an experience." When we arrived he was surprised how busy it was for 2pm on a Wednesday. We ended up going 3 days in a row to look at and buy the new bits of furniture I wanted. Each day my brother commented on how busy it was. At the end of our Ikea adventures I said "I told you. Its an experience." And that is honestly true. If you go to a Walmart or Home Sense to buy furniture you are having...basically a normally shopping day. You get in, everything is on shelves, you pick up the box and read all the labels to make sure its the right size. With Ikea it is almost like walking into someone else's home. Not only can you pick things up and measure them yourself, you can sit or lay down, or you can pull out your laptop at a desk and see how that feels. And you are doing this in an area where everyone else is doing the same, you are all gathering for the same purpose. In other stores you sit in a chair to see if its comfortable, At Ikea you sit in a chair to see what it feels like in conjunction with that lovely 3 piece shelf set. Three days in a row me and my brother went to that store to walk the show room and get lost in the maze bellow and yet each day we returned home in rather good moods. Its an experience, a simple one. I think that says quite a bit about the human condition. We all want to have a little adventure in our lives and Ikea, in a strange way, provides that. Even if its just for an hour spent picking out a new coffee table.

[@InMaTeofDeath]

Also his view on respecting ideas is dead wrong. Idea's do NOT deserve respect for being an idea. The problem he talks about happens when you suppress idea's. You respect the person who holds the idea, you respect the right of them to have the idea, but respecting the idea itself is unnecessary. Too much censorship and lack of freedom of speech is what causes the issues here not the lack of respect to an idea.

[@Ruby_V_]

I think the logical stretch is that ideas become censored if they are not respected. To argue that stretch we have to dive into defining personhood; it is not possible respect a person but not the ideas they have. When we don't respect a person's ideas, we ostracise them, resulting in censorship through social/emotional pressure.

[@TheZenferno]

Why don't ideas deserve respect just for being an idea?

[@MIRobin22]

Patrick Burridge When we understand what it means to respect an idea, we see how essential it is. Respect of an idea is independent of agreement or even of your emotional reaction to the idea. It comes from trying to understand a person's point of view and how they arrived at it, trying to "climb into their skin and walk around in it." In fact, I think it is impossible to fully understand the idea someone is expressing without respect, and it would be very difficult to convince someone an idea is wrong if they sense disrespect. An essential skill is being able to separate an idea from the expression of an idea. The way someone expresses an idea can be unacceptable and abhorrent, but we shouldn't let that stop us from looking at the idea itself and deciding if it is true on its own merits.

[@pbsideachannel]

MIRobin22 This. Thank you.

[@InMaTeofDeath]

MIRobin22 As I said the respect part is still unnecessary when it comes to understanding. You are respecting the person when you try to understand the idea and how they got there not the idea. Like say if the person is racist, how would you find out how they got there? You ask the person, not the idea, you ask them why they think that and what made them come to that conclusion, that has nothing to do with respecting the idea. "I think it is impossible to fully understand the idea someone is expressing without respect" Yes, but respect of the PERSON, I fully understand the idea of my parents religion and have talked about it at length with them. I know what they believe and why but I do NOT respect the religion, as I said, maybe for some people it helps but it isn't necessary. "it would be very difficult to convince someone an idea is wrong if they sense disrespect." You're right, but I Never said you should be disrespectful, just because you don't respect an idea that doesn't mean you have to be disrespectful about it to the person, it's not impossible to not respect an idea and still treat the person with respect, or you can also be neutral. "An essential skill is being able to separate an idea from the expression of an idea. The way someone expresses an idea can be unacceptable and abhorrent, but that shouldn't let that stop us from looking at the idea itself and deciding if it is true in its own merits" This is true, and does not disagree with anything I said. Lack of respect of an idea does not stop you from looking at the idea itself and deciding if its true, what stops you from doing that is exactly what I originally said, censorship and lack of freedom of speech, respect does not enter the picture.

[@ElNumro23]

At the start of this video I said to myself, "No, are we really doing this?" But my doubt was subsequently replaced by reassurance. Thank you for another wonderful video that defied my expectations on what could be discussed in such a serious manor.

[@thescowlingschnauzer]

Americans, say it with me: EE-kay-uh

[@johnnyfuxtik]

Can't do it. They'd ostracize me. I know. I once said croissant properly.

[@thescowlingschnauzer]

johnnyfuxtik Your response is essentially "I cannot do the right thing because of other people," which is the most un-American sentiment I can imagine. *EAGLES* *FIREWORKS* *LIBERTY*

[@johnnyfuxtik]

thescowlingschnauzer Maybe the absurdity of the joke didn't translate.

[@woodcider]

It's just like the pronunciation of Houston in NYC. If you say it like the city in Texas, you are subject to judgment and ridicule. "It's How-ston!"

[@woodcider]

But honestly, there is nothing more pretentious than an American who pronounces croissant like the French. It's like the 80s when every newscaster over-pronounced Nicaragua.

[@fen4554]

Can I gush? This channel makes me so happy. Our host is a personality dynamo.

[@timstanton3834]

Assembling Ikea furniture is almost a zen experience for me. Working with tangible objects, being given clear direction, moving at a leisurely pace and winding up with a finished product are all benefits I don't get from my day job.

[@srpilha]

I was going to comment on the human condition and all, but oh man, Pierrot Lunaire. This all by itself is a reason to follow this channel, and underlines once again what was said in the 100-ish episode about the equality of all parts of culture in front of critical thinking. Cheers once more for a great channel!

[@MEver316]

"Hello pot... my name is kettle. Nice to meet you." You're so awesome Mike.

[@TheAmusingMe]

The animated IKEA store robot may have been the best motion graphic to date. Well done!

[@zampettedainsetto]

This is one of the only two you tube channels (along with VSauce) that make me actually want to look up the things mentioned in the videos. I love it and I'm also sort of grateful because you made me find out some hella interesting shows/movies/books/philosophies/(ad libitum)

[@Saiyusa]

Your freak out about the subscribers being a small country was precious :3

[@Lowmanification]

I always felt that Ikea was the most well designed store in existence. The one by me has you enter at ground level where there is a place to drop off the children at a child prison before the parents go up an escalator to the showroom. There they navigate through a twisting path with minor shortcuts hidden on the map between each area making it kind of a scavenger hunt to find what you want on the map and plot a course to it. After you have selected and written down everything that you want there is the restaurant where you can recoup your lost energy right before the escalator to the warehouse 1st floor. There it is organized like a library where so long as you understand the Dewey Decimal System and how to read aisle enders you can easily find the items you want before checking out with a flatbed cart to carry all of your stuff to your car. On the way out you are funneled past the backdoor to the child prison to pick up the children and then all head out with the loot.

[@008TheDen]

I feel like Idea channel has in a way tamed the youtube comments by creating a commenting culture. The main mechanism of this is of course that you feature comments that are thoughtful and original. Speaking from personal experience I have had an idea for a comment then looked through the comments quickly, evaluated what I was thinking and decided that it wasn't a worthy contribution. On the other hand this observation would generally be forgotten in the stream of my consciousness, but instead I will share it with the aspiration that it will get featured in a future video. Soto all fellow Idea channel lovers( do we have a fandom name?) keep thinking and keep commenting.

[@TheZenferno]

Idealites.

[@008TheDen]

Idealists, Ideanians, that's all I got.

[@TheCodemasterc]

If Idea Channel was a country it would be (according to the country population estimates of 2013 as told by wikipedia) it would in between the 172nd(Suriname) and 173rd(Cape Verde) most populous nations out of the listed 243 recognized nations of the world.Which makes Idea Channel roughly larger then 70 or so nations in the world.

[@yo252yo]

I love how you highlight the link between consumerism and search for meaning, I would have loved to see a little bit of expansion about how "self-definition" interacts with all this. Decoring one's home is supposedly a mean of expression, almost artistic in intent. Is our quest for meaning in life inherently linked to self-definition ? What does it say about mankind that most of us chose the very limited Ikea palette to paint our self portrait ? How we chose our constraints is as much part of the art piece as the art piece itself. And is it still art when "everybody is doing it" ? More than that, this palette of very limited diversity still allows everyone to come up with their own result, and that's a kickass metaphore for how humanity shares the same essence, vibe and nature while still offering the diversity that we know it for. As I was saying, great thinking subject ^^

[@hassongraphics]

I love this channel, I come here to chill when I'm looking for new ideas. That being said I feel like the comments section of these videos is a cool, awesome, exciting world that I don't get to participate in. I don't feel like I would ever have something to add or that would be discussed in the ending of a video. One day I'll be smart enough to join you guys and have something useful to add to the conversation. Until then, keep it up! ^_^ PS: I am not by any means complaining, I only wish I felt that what was discussed was more accessible to my understanding. Love what you're doing. :)

[@MysticMuttering]

As Daniel Pink says in his RSA talk about motivation, humans love to feel autonomous, masterful, and purposeful. IKEA's products make stylistic statements about one's autonomous identity and the building component helps one gain a small sense of mastery. The greater purpose served by acquiring these things is left up to us, and some of us do conclude, like the protagonist of Fight Club, that no greater purpose is served in that way. There is a huge ocean of things out there, but the number of possessions we covet and strive for and obtain will always be dwarfed by the immense number of reasons we create for doing so.

[@Playgrounders]

I got lost inside an IKEA once while looking for a friend. A concerned employee came up to me and asked if I needed any help. I looked at him straight in the eye and said "You know this place is a maze, right?" And I kid you not, the employee immediately responded "Yes, but it's also a-MAZE-ING!" I laughed so hard because this man looked like he had been waiting his entire life to say that!

[@okcringelord]

Mike, I just want to say that despite the fact we would likely disagree about many things (and agree on many more, I suspect), I am appreciative of the fact that you are aware of your biases and not trying to hide them. I've also noticed the more liberal view expressed on Idea Channel, but what has kept me coming back is not that suddenly I agree with everything you say, but the fact that you are unafraid of your views gives me a window into the thought processes of someone whom, in some cases, I fundamentally disagree with. In short, I think you're a cool guy and I would love to chat one day. :)

[@revyaraksha9372]

Regardless of if I agree or not I just appreciate that idea channel explores each issues as a question to be discussed. It is refreshing and makes any disagreements a joy in exploring a different perspective. I always feel each video is approached as a conversation and you don't need to agree with people to have great conversations. I never want to click on the idea channel video where I say "Yep that was pretty much just exactly what I already thought." If you say liberalism is the heart of idea channel, who am I to argue, but I've always found it to be dialog that is the pulse of these videos.

[@criticallit]

What about rituals? I know many people, myself included, treat a trip to IKEA with the same ritualistic fervor they might a holiday like Christmas or Hanukkah. When you leave home for the first time, move apartments or settle in with a partner, visiting IKEA becomes this 'event' you sometimes have to partake in whether or not you love it or hate it. It can been seen as a rite of passage, a bonding experience between housemates, or just simply a 'day out'. And like a ritual, IKEA comes with a sequence of "acts" that remain the same *wherever* you are in the world. You wander through the fancy furniture displays, note down what you like, then you have to find it, visit the restaurant, and then go home and build it all. There's a great study called "Ritual Enhances Consumption" that shows that ritualised behaviour actually *improves* the experience of something. Taking a deep breath before eating chocolate = it tastes better. So maybe IKEA's ritualistic nature contributes to why we love it so much/consume it? IKEA furniture can be pretty shitty but we went through a *ritual* to get them. IKEA stores can be a pretty stressful, terrible place (like you said in the video), but we do it anyway and sometimes even feel satisfied afterwards....because of the ritual of going there in the first place. Even the food tastes great when really it's a bit crap. IKEA has become so embedded in our culture it's actually become A THING WE DO. I mean, rituals have been said to be part of that "fraudulent idea of happiness"....... perhaps perhaps perhaps? ~grooves~

[@abexuro]

I can't help but think of a Belgium funny short. It's an add for Ikea, where an employee is disassembling a closet and putting the pieces in a box. "I'm the one that takes your closets apart for you. Here, have a few extra screws."

[@TOXWORKS]

In Europe all IKEA stores are well lit and neatly organized, also we have windows. And emergency exits, just in case the entire factory catches fire. So I guess Europe wins this point, yay!

[@tjvonp]

When talking about "the Ikea Effect," you suggested to possible explanations: 1. Effort justification, and 2. A sense of competence that comes from building the furniture. I would like to point out that in the case of building furniture, this "sense of competence" is not something that should be dismissed as just a good feeling. If you have two shelves but only built one of them yourself, then you "know" how one of these shelves works. That is, if both shelves break, then you will justifiably feel more comfortable trying to fix the one that you built in the first place. In my mind, this confidence adds real value to the (possibly cheaper) piece that you pieced together.

[@logicalphallacieshow]

Ikea may illustrate the human condition in the ways you describe, but a human can also meet all of its basic needs AT an Ikea. Maybe Ikea's inherent appeal is it's simplistic provision of these things. If you look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs from the perspective of what Ikea's brand offers, you'll find what you're looking for at Ikea. From the bottom up- Physiological: Food (meatballs!), Sleep (tempurpedic swedish sleep system!), Procreation (if only Ikea beds didn't squeak!), Breathing (Ikea has air), Homeostasis (I assume most Ikeas have an AC) Security of: Body (building a personal shelter- now w/ dagstorp!), Employment (cheap products!), Resources (all the extra dowels you'll need!), Morality (those who chose to talk about, discuss, boycott Ikea for its practices), Health (they offer more food than meatballs and some of it is fairly healthy!), Property (great return policy!) Love/Belonging: Friendship, Family, and Sexual Intimacy (can all be facilitated in you Ikea bedecked home!) Esteem: Self-Esteem (I built that dagstorp myself!), Confidence (I can probably build more furniture myself), Achievement (I built all of the Ikea furniture in my house!), Respect of Others (have a seat in this INCREDIBLY WELL MADE AND TOTALLY SAFE VÄRMDÖ!) Respect by Others ("this IS an incredibly well made and totally safe Värmdö!") Self Actualization: Morality ("why do I think Ikea's business practices are questionable and does that affect how or if I buy things from them?"), Creativity (I can make a Billy out of a Benno and some Kallax!), Spontaneity (impulse buying of cute accessories for your kids' Sansad), Problem Solving (have you seen those instruction manuals?), Acceptance of Facts (that piece really doesn't work anywhere else...) Lack of Prejudice (Ikea's style is functional and aesthetic for all and doesn't presume on your socioeconomic status or taste)

[@coastalCondor]

This is sounds very similar to the tactic Betty Crocker used in the 1950's under the direction of Ernest Dichter in which by adding a step to their recipes where the baker had to add an egg they found that bakers had a great sense of satisfaction. It would seem that no matter how much we want things done now, we take more satisfaction and ownership of something we feel we actually created. Perhaps a very interesting future for consumerism...

[@busybuddha]

Small critique concerning only the multimedia support... Disappointed not to see any clips from 30 Rock episode of trip to Ikea. Part of about the experience, dichotomy between the experience above and below, is hilariously conveyed within the episodes plot. So glad you are back!!!!!!!!!

[@McBehrer]

I loved your response to JPeel. So mean! I've never seen you be so snarky before.

[@Slinja]

At last! Now I understand why people say that they get lost in an IKEA. I've never had this problem, because in other countries (at least in Germany and France where I was) it isn't that crowded nor that complicated to walk through the down halls. It's quite wide and nicely organized.

[@Mattokenzi]

Funny enough, I was kind of hoping there was going to be an idea topic on IKEA. I think it's all about the human mind 'growing up' as we step into adulthood (you know... cook dinner, pay bills and my favourite rite of passage assemble furniture from ikea.) Now for me I have moved into my flat recently and the house felt like a blank canvas so IKEA gives me this sense of feeling that the first floor it's like living in a full scale 'dolls house' where we can imagine where we can put what to where. Then the ground floor does have that 'dungeon' feeling where we go on a sort of quest for flat pack furniture and finally you go home and construct that desk to put in your bedroom (with the instructions you are given... Grown up Lego anyone?) To me It amazes me how we go into IKEA and it gives us that mental state to make us feel like a kid again.

[@KelwynAyla]

I missed you guys! Glad to have you back.

[@99thTuesday]

Simulcra is definitely Idea channel's favourite word.

[@roidroid]

It's fun to pull things apart to see their insides, see how they work. This ordinarily means a risky game of _"Can i manage to take this apart without destroying it?"_. But with IKEA, seeing inside the things is an integral part of the process. By seeing it raw you get a sense of the quality of the thing, the texture, weight and even sound of the materials as you get up close and personal during assembly. There's just something about a company that is confident in letting you see what's behind the curtain, this transparency inspires trustworthiness. *Authenticity* is a highly valued social commodity thesedays. If the building also had a wood-routing-shop level, and a soft-wood lumber forest out the back, it'd be absolutely perfect. I'm typing this on my old scuffed-up IKEA table, i was amazed by how light it was when purchasing/assembling it. In any other situation i may have been disgusted, how dare they skimp on the quality, how can this table hold anything?! But my actual reaction was more one of admiring it's design & manufacturing efficiency ie: oooh they can make it so light coz they design and test it very well. I think a lot of the process of being an IKEA customer just makes me trust them, it's weird, congrats to the IKEA PR dept. I trust this table like i trust my homebuilt PC, i've felt the weight of it's metal (or wood), i have a more intimate knowledge of what's inside it than most other things in this room.

[@MotherGrits]

i think this was a fun, thought-provoking exercise, but yeah, when it comes down to it, at least in my case, i've never experienced effort justification...that is, i don't value my ikea furniture any more than my other furnishings b/c i had to painstakingly construct it. quite the reverse, sadly...every day when my table wobbles under the weight of my elbows, i'm reminded that i should have probably followed the instructions more closely. the simple truth is it's inexpensive and relatively easy to obtain and assemble. for a poor, busy twenty-something living in a small nyc studio, i can't afford to bother with the politics when i need a simple bed.

[@Tiffanyknows99]

I've only ever been to Ikea once, but I absolutely loved the showroom (I actually asked my mum if we could go round again once we'd finished). I find the examples of good, well organised interior design to be inspiring, as well as strangely comforting, and they just give off a feel good vibe. I have to agree that the warehouse wasn't great, but it didn't seem any different from your average DIY store.

[@crisziz]

I've only stepped into Ikea once. It was fascinating, yet simultaneously terrifying at the same time. The room setups are a work of art.

[@penguinclubleader]

When I went back to Japan this Easter, they'd just opened their first Ikea and were celebrating with program after program of the how-to-successfully-ikea, something I, having lived in London, was confounded by. I guess Ikea is synonymous here with the hellish nightmare land of boxes after boxes of wooden crap you will eventually fail at making. But in Japan, I guess because they're still new to the concept, the space-saving, completely customisable, quirky and yet mass-produced furniture is a gift. I was actually surprised they'd not latched onto the idea ages ago. Another thing I found interesting was how, despite having mostly the same products, they had a Japanese-centric line, perfect to renovate washitsu into studies without ruining the aesthetic.

[@BALELOLLLO]

There is a phrase written on a wall nearby my house( Milan,Italy) that says: "Non possiamo più fare la rivoluzione, i mobili dell'ikea non sono abbastanza solidi per le barricate." wich transated in english is: "We can't have a revolution, Ikea fornitures are not tough enough for barricades"

[@F19ish]

I've actually always adored the downstairs maze. I get a sense, almost, of exploring a dungeon in some Zelda clone, searching for my precious items through impossibly tall corridors. The high ceilings also give a semi-religious sense of reverence, like a chapel dedicated to consumerism and interesting furniture.

[@jiaozh2935]

You guys are doing such a wonderful job. As there are some countries cannot get access to KZbin, could you think about uploading your product to their websites? After all, these brilliant ideas are worth of sharing.

[@ryanjpwhalen]

I think that IKEA puts the human condition on display more than it displays the human condition itself. You can see couples getting closer together, building their lives (apartments) together. Parents choosing the layout for their new baby's room. Couples fighting, babies crying, people arguing, boyfriends hating every moment of the ikea experience.

[@brwneyedgirlx19]

That use of the beauty and the beast jyfe was perfect.

[@Ziraya0]

First time watching PBS Idea Channel, at first it felt a lot like V-Sauce, which is a show I'm not broadly fond of; I'm glad that the depth and seriousness expended on the topic at hand is much.... more here, where V likes to get silly and go on tangents and then suddenly tell you that you misinterpreted the question and now here's a vaguely related quaint fact that following everything else looks amazing but really it's completely unrelated. This video seems like a particularly good example of that, it would have been easy to go on a series of tangents bending the question to unrelated points somebody wanted to make, but it stuck to the topic quite strictly and answered what is easily a joke of a question with the seriousness that it's analysis proves it was worth. Good start! Not sure if subscribing yet, but I'm definitely watching another video

[@quentinlynch]

Very nice video, lots of interesting ideas. Thanks for that! And thanks for making me laugh out loud with the "oj oj oj"-guy! I wonder what makes IKEA special or different from other places you can buy furniture at and have to put it together at home. I think it might be the allround-experience (you can shop there, eat there, get in contact with other people there etc.). Here in Germany many people go to IKEA in the morning and meet there to eat in the IKEA-"restaurant" together. They sometimes don't even shop anything. I always found that extremely weird, a bit like going to the movies only for the popcorn...

[@ReiAyanami8]

Everyone's going to Comic-Con except me!!! **runs away**

[@MultiTryn]

Your response to lesliefoundhergrail reminded of Corey Vidal's video that he uploaded yesterday. He continued his youtube story (the thing a lot of youtubers did 4 years ago where they talked about their lives and how youtube fit into it) and spent 2 and a half hours talking about the last 4 years of his life. He mentioned how the channel/company he set up did a weekly vlog. He also explained how he didn't know what to vlog because he was having personal issues and even though the vlog had a happy and inspirational vibe to it, he wasn't feeling happy. So, he talked to people like weezywaiter about how to decide what to vlog because he didn't want to let down the people who watched the videos and saw them as the "highlight of their day." So yeah, even though you see a vlogger in a video, it doesn't mean that's how they really are.

[@xquizitdecorum]

Let's not forget that the dichotomy between the ideal which is stored above - the beautifully organized and chic-minimalist design of Ikea's marketing geniuses - and the ideal which is stored below - the hell that results from the shameless abandonment of any semblance of beauty for the sake of maximal efficiency - also reflects the ideal of weltschmerz - the realization that any artistic beauty can never be realized in the real world. Any experience with IKEA embodies weltschmerz twice - first through the experience of shopping the furniture as state above, and then again upon assembly - a purgatorio of assembly that yields a piece of furniture far more rickety than that which you wished and that which you saw in the store. And sorry for the dashes.

[@RonDosa]

I just got home from IKEA and saw this, and it made me really happy. I was one of the disapointed ones back in april. Parhaps it's because I'm Swedish, and few things instill me with such reluctant patriotism as the international cultural significance of IKEA. For me IKEA is a lot about playfulness and nostalgia for childhood, and I think it comes from three coupled things. First it's the design, with all its colours. So much of it just looks friendly and childish, like toys and candy. Secondly, it's the naming of the stuff. In swedish many of the names are quite genius plays och words, and often, for me at least, evoke the tumbled associations of a child. Thirdly, it's the construction of the stuff, wich is the closest to playing with LEGOs I come as an adult, and I often look forward to it. Of course it's all incredibly well thought out. Together with things like the quite cheap restaurant and the ridiculously cheap bait products, it's what IKEA relies on to make us repress the horror of it all so we'll consider coming back. Now I'm going to go put together my new Molger!

[@kamaitachi113]

The Ikea in Atlanta is the same, more or less, but both the showroom and marketplace are laid out in a maze-like pattern with a few shortcuts in the main barriers. If you want it to be all metaphorical, you could say that they're implicitly saying that there is a "best path" through life, and while you can be unique to an extent in what you choose you really do need to go through it in a particular order. I think there's even a dotted line on the little map you get with your stubby pencil. The thing that's always struck me on my trips to Ikea is the way the people inside behave. It's kind of violent even on the slower days I've been there. No altercations per se but lots of pushy invasions of personal space and unfriendly glares and cold shoulders. The structure of the building encourages constant movement, so when you want to stop and look at something you're pressured to move on quickly. It's very hostile. I think that that's partially a result of the way it affects you as a shopper, especially when you're shopping as a couple. You have to be pretty stable as a couple to buy furniture, I think; the pressure added by the pace of shopping in an Ikea can really put strain on your ability to make team decisions. It has a reputation. I'll never forget the first time my wife and I went there and didn't argue; it was a biggish smallish milestone in our relationship. We'd been married for five years at that point. By the way, thanks. Any time someone mentions Ikea, the Jonathan Coulton song gets stuck in my head indefinitely. Is it even true that if you don't have a home you can buy one there? They have everything but a roof, I think, so it depends on your climate....

[@Negaman21]

I love Idea Channel. Thank you Idea Channel for being Idea Channel.

[@INTCUWUSIUA]

As a kid being dragged to Ikea by my parents, the part i always hated the most was the showroom. It felt so artificial and stifling and the only thing to do there was to wander aimlessly among generic furniture pieces and see if i could find any electronics among the display pieces that actually worked. The marketplace on the other hand felt like an adventure, it was it's maze like chaotic nature that made it feel so interesting and alive and exciting. Even now i find that windowless maze to be the better part of my trips to ikea, which perhaps doesn't hold the same charm for someone that actually lives in Scandinavia and speaks Swedish.

[@OhMyGoshItsALeg]

I live in Merriam, Kansas, and currently in my city construction of a new Ikea is nearing completion. It's a good thing for the town, economically: before now the only Ikea in the Midwest was in Colorado (I think?), so having such a large, popular retailer in our little suburb of Kansas City will be very good for the surrounding businesses. The construction of this Ikea also solves a public works issue that had been staring the Merriam city council in the face for some years: a large, ostentatious shopping center which had been constructed around an anchoring Circuit City, completed within days of Circuit City announcing its bankruptcy, which had been sitting in our town for a while (and had come to be known as the Great Wall of Merriam because it's a huge, stone-walled hill) and had been a large eyesore. Ikea purchased the property cheaply from the Merriam government, and tore up the abandoned buildings to put its new store in their place. So Ikea is, in its own way, doing something to improve the condition of our little, inconsequential suburb. At the same time there are some annoying (to me at least) side-effects: the street which runs past the new Ikea location has been renamed Ikea Way, for example, which probably only bothers reactionary anti-corporate young'uns like myself. It's perhaps representational of the problem of treating a corporate entity like a person, whether in a legal sense or a linguistic sense: when such properties as respect and thankfulness are placed onto something that, at its core, is a cold-hearted money-focused force of capitalism, it ignores things like "well, there's individual people with individual goals and faults and virtues running the show behind this curtain of cash" and "not everything this entity does is altruistic or even consistent". Altruism and a consistency of action are, in my mind, the marks of a rational, respectable being. When agency is given to a thing that possesses either very little or none of either of those qualities, it is either deliberate anthropomorphism as seen in language and narrative theory and is excusable as long as we don't let that attribution of agency escape the boundaries of easing communication or conveying a narrative, or is a mark of something entirely alien to rationality and recognizable person-hood. Corporate person-hood is nigh Lovecraftian in its horror, or at least it is to me: a thing which possesses none of the qualities that mark recognizable intelligence other than a legal or social mantle of those qualities. It is, in short, a big fat horrifying lie. The entity known as 'Ikea' may be able to give something good to its customers and communities, but it is not through any kind of intelligent agency the likes of which we observe in humans and animals. To suggest otherwise verges on madness.

[@haldorasheim]

YLVIS did a prank on IKEA locking people in example-rooms, making them think they really got lost! Check it out. :)

[@minmax5]

i'm so happy this became an actual video imo.

[@ringindustries]

I've been waiting for a Fight Club mention on Idea Channel for far too long, I can die happily now.

[@joehutson8601]

That Matrix (spoon) reference gave me a good laugh :')

[@quentinromot-smith9310]

Hey Michael, with every one of your new videos recently I've been only reading the title and trying to predict what the video will be about, so this is what I thought! 1) IKEA Rests on the assumption that more choice equates to more utility. That's a general human idea, more options = better stuff. However, Barry Schwartz concluded that humans can only weigh up 7 different options before experiencing choice regret and diminishing marginal returns on their choices, creating narratives where alternative choices are much better than they actually would be, essentially that the grass is always greener on the other side (pretty similar to Reactance Psychology). 2) People like to feel like they're contributing to something (but not too much). We were pretty similar on this, also interestingly Betty Crocker does the same thing with her cake mix, people are instructed to crack only a single egg (enough to feel like they're doing stuff, but not enough to mess up the cake). By extension, people like guidance in their lives, a really potent example of this is Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of the Japan post-WW2. 3) IKEA is universal -- we form connections when we do stuff together, and IKEA's universal manual means that anyone regardless of culture can connect by piecing together furniture together. And by extension, 4) IKEA distills things down to the Bear Necessities of Life -- IKEA manuals are minimalist in their design, pictures of screws and hammers are much simpler to digest than complicated instruction manuals and that we need simplicity in our lives. Cheers!

[@MrSilverDude101]

I miss this show

[@SethWatersVlogs]

One of the defining things of humanity, that I learned about in my education studies, was that humans have an uncontrollable desire for autonomy. Because Ikea is so you-dependent, it makes it seem more worth your time. A dog will eat food happily whether or not it finds it. We love food we make more (for the most part....maybe some people hate making their own food). Moreover, Ikea has the uncanny ability to do anything, ANYTHING, and keep going on, simply because we anthropomorphize it so much, we can simply remove it's humanization as punishment. We de-humanize to punish war enemies, why not a business?! When Wal-Mart messes up big, we go to town on it, because it is an IT. Ikea, along with a few other establishments (maybe like MccyD's? (mcdonalds)) are so human, that our best way of sanction is to de-humanize, to neglect, to shame, not to sue, logically de-base, or ethicisize up and down. (And I did just make up ethicize and it was good.)

[@flyingdics1]

I'm sad about the loss of a signed John Vanderslice, particularly for Schoenberg. I enjoyed the rest of the episode, particularly your rebuttals and agreements to critical comments.

[@PatrickMelanson]

Yeah Canada, we were mentioned!!!

[@Wifi_Cable]

I've never purchased anything from IKEA though I can easily see why people would. Being a bit of a DIY person, I would enjoy being able to know that if something went wrong I would be able to fix it. There is also a great deal of pride knowing that you built something which many others would be legitimately scared to attempt.

[@matthewdavis9966]

Can't wait to see you at Phoenix Comic Con!

[@morgank7386]

I've been to Ikea once. Life in Iowa is in many ways exactly what you expect.

[@jacobb1166]

Ikea is an example of how we tend to “consume” as human beings. Not “consume” in the modern day purchasing of brands fashion, but the consumption of resources that we as a species have always done. Buying a partially made dinning set, assembling it, and arranging it in your home is a clean, less arduous version of creating an axe from a stone and a stick. Ikea-style consumerism is not so much identity through pseudo-unique assembly line product, but the latest iteration of human beings doing what has defined them since the first tools were made: changing the world around them suite them…. Or maybe it’s a simulacrum of that.

[@KnaveMurdok]

I've always thought that the main thing IKEA always said about the human condition is that "Nothing is Permanent". All IKEA furnature is is cheap stuff that you only have "for now". It's notoriously unreliable, it could falll apart at any time, but people love it because it's cheap! I think this says a lot about my little corner of the human condition in Bay Area California. Maybe other areas have this problem too, I dunno, but in the Bay Area there seems to be constant constant renovation. This means tearing down buildings and lots of abandoned places. This leads to what I think is a whole culture of impermanence. Everything we have is good... for now! We can get rid of it though, because it's cheap! There's hardly ever any room to lay down roots in a place because it is going to change! Maybe several times in your life you will see it change. In my entire school career, I don't think I ever attended a campus that wasn't under construction. I see these places now in adulthood and I don't recognize them anymore. That might even tie in to the whole nostalgia thing~ maybe people (in my area) glom onto old TV shows and music so vehemently because the place they grew up in straight up doesn't exist anymore. I dunno, am i onto something? Or am I just talking a lot of nonsense?

[@SheilaTheGrate]

The Ikea in Toronto also has the feeling of heavenly show room above, hellish market below and queues that are way too long.

[@Mach1048]

So.... This episode says a lot about me. When I have to go to Ikea, I HATE the constructed, perfect world, top level. But I love the pallet stacked, this is what your buying, realness to the lower level. I feel more at home when the gloss is paired back, and things are just what they are with-out filter.

[@Littlelizzybell]

I can't wait to see you at Phoenix comicon !!

[@coolbeans4438]

i love how everytime he says community a picture of community (tv show) appears.