Videos of people destroying things took over TikTok in 2023, but it's actually one of the oldest trends on the internet

• Destruction-based videos have been popular online since the early days of YouTube.
• Now they've reached TikTok, with mega-viral videos of bottles smashing taking over the app in 2023.
• Destruction may make us feel cathartic and in control, according to a cognitive neuroscientist.

Clips of seemingly random destruction have been blowing up on TikTok, but the urge to watch something get demolished is nothing new. It's a genre that's been going strong since the early years of social video, and could appeal to needs for control and catharsis.

YouTube launched in February 2005, and it didn't take long for creators to tap into a desire for destruction. By October the following year, a man in a lab coat was dropping items into a blender to see what would happen.

The online series "Will It Blend?" was basically a marketing campaign run by Tom Dickson, CEO and founder of Blendtec, to demonstrate the power of his kitchen product, and it worked.

Dickson's channel blew up almost as fast as the marbles, golf balls, and hockey pucks he popped into his blender, and he gained over 294 million views.

Similarly destructive channels which focused on exploding household items in microwaves, or crushing objects under a hydraulic press followed, and were hugely successful as well.

This year, the trend hit TikTok, where videos featuring increasingly elaborate methods of demolition went mega-viral. Creators swung toilets with TVs strapped on top at one another, and launched glass bottles from treadmills down flights of stairs, gaining millions of views in the process.

The hashtag #smashbottle leads to many such videos uploaded this year, which often feature jars of food being flung down steps, and the search term has racked up over 196 million views on the platform alone.

Although the trend, which blew up in the summer, was criticized by some TikTokers who called out the waste involved, especially in a cost-of-living crisis, many commenters wrote how hypnotic and satisfying they found the uploads, and asked to see more.

Many popular bottle smash videos include the hashtag #ASMR in their captions, a term popularized by YouTube creators who make videos designed to stimulate a pleasant sensory response that some people report feeling when they're exposed to certain triggers, such as stroking, scratching, or whispering.

While it may feel counterintuitive, it seems from the comments that for some viewers videos of people breaking things can have a similar effect.

But there may also be a deeper psychological need at play.

Dr. Christian Jarrett, a cognitive neuroscientist and science writer, addressed the general desire people have for destruction in response to a reader of BBC Science Focus who asked why it was so satisfying.

"Feeling in control is a basic human need and one theory posits that deliberately destroying things is incredibly satisfying because it makes us feel powerful," he wrote.

He also cited the popularity of "anger rooms," sometimes called "rage rooms" or "smash rooms," where people can let off steam by breaking things in a safe environment.

"Anecdotal evidence from visitors to 'anger rooms' indicates that there's also a cathartic element, especially when we've been suppressing frustration in our everyday lives. Many people also get a thrill from watching things being smashed to pieces," he wrote.

Whatever the reason, it seems the trend for watching people break things may be one of the most enduring on the internet — and shows no sign of going anywhere any time soon.