'My little influencer': A toy ringlight as proxy to media practices and technopanics

Wooden toys, from wooden blocks to wooden doctor kits, are a popular choice for many families when they make decisions about the type of toys suitable for their children. Recent additions to the genre of wooden toys are versions of technologies used in the creative industries. In this paper, we examine a wooden vlogger set, featuring a toy ringlight, and consider the technopanic (Marwick) that surrounded this toy on social media. We consider how the ringlight acts as a proxy for media practices including social media production, which some people find problematic, and argue that the moral panic around this toy is an extension of previous panics relating to the futures adults imagine for their children. In the second part of this paper, we examine how the toy ringlight, despite not being digital, can afford opportunities to develop media literacy understandings. We explore and unpack how the ringlight and associated play can be viewed through the key concepts of media literacy education.