The Phenomenon of ASMR

By Jamanee Depina

Nov 6, 2018

Tap tap tap tap tap. Are you feeling relaxed yet? ASMR is sweeping the YouTube scene with the brain-tingling sensation and relaxation it provides to millions of people.

ASMR, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, creates calming, pleasurable sensations due to gentle stimuli and is often accompanied by tingling sensations. People have reported feelings of relaxation, calmness, sleepiness, euphoria, and peacefulness. This is most likely due to brain sensations including vision, sound, and touch in a process called synesthesia. When one sense is activated, the others can involuntarily start to induce feelings without being directly activated. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins are released at increased rates to produce this euphoric feeling. Since ASMR is such a new idea, there is no official scientific research and all data is based off of anecdotes, but many people still believe in this amazing phenomenon.

The ASMR community is a prominent community that is continuously growing at rapid rates. People bond over the shared love of ASMR and intimately interact with those in the comments and the content creator. With over 13 million content creators, YouTube is their creative outlet to create new triggers and spend a lot of time on the setup of the video, including the microphone and the backgrounds. They create videos of tapping, whispering, mouth sounds, eating, or role-plays of hair-cutting, fashion designing, and being your real estate agent. On their channels, people share their issues to get it off their chest and people provide their own positive feedback and relate to their situation. It is almost seemingly a form of self-medicating as people state that ASMR helps their insomnia, anxiety, and other mental issues. Although there is an extent to the successes of self-medicating, people have found serenity and progression in relaxing their nerves from the content when it comes to their mental illness.

ASMR has become a highly controversial topic in recent years as it gains traction on YouTube. Many people have flocked to see what all the hype is about and have fallen in love with the intimacy of the community. They can share their struggles with people and use the content the creators make to ease their worries and help them with their pains. On the contrary, others find themselves scoffing at the idea of listening to a person whisper or tap on objects or feel highly uncomfortable listening to such things. This personal attention that many crave is also the source of much of the hate for the “odd” behaviors performed in the videos.

However, this hate can be somewhat justified by the actions of the “dark” side of the community. Although these ASMRtists are doing works of wonder, there is a negative side to this highly attached community. There is a very important saying when it comes to YouTube: separate the art from the artist. Many watchers of ASMR find an extreme attachment to the personal attention that these creators are providing in their content and end up believing that they are actually being directly addressed. Some creators have claimed that people send them explicit pictures, threatening DM’s, or even find ways to message friends and family to determine where they live or work to get directly into their lives. Since the community is very saturated with women especially, harassment is common for appearance and they are frequently sexualized. Often times, people harass them for looking like “cam girls,” stating that they become aroused when watching them because they are just “too sexy” or that the triggers they are performing are “oversexualized” and sound “erotic” (i.e mouth sounds, kissing). Even China’s anti-pornography office banned all ASMR videos, claiming it would “protect minors from harmful content.” This leads many ASMRtists to refuse to perform certain triggers or even terminate their channels for the sake of their privacy and safety. ASMRtists subject themselves to an unpredictable playing field as their service helps those with mental illness, but it also attracts those who are toxic and possibly dangerous.

Although ASMRtists put themselves in danger for the betterment of others, the community itself is nowhere near perfect. The ASMR community is known for being mostly white female driven. Out of the top 10 ASMRtists, 8 out of 10 are white females. The other two are a Korean female and a white male. If one continues to the top 30 list, only an additional 5 are not white. They are all Korean females. However, there are many diverse races and genders in the community who are not as popular, often because they are criticized for accents, appearance, and for simply being different. These excuses are quite contradictory as many of the top ASMRtists mimic accents for certain videos or have slight accents from England or other European countries. Although many claim that their appearance did not raise them to their level of popularity, there is no denial that it has helped since there are often thousands of comments talking about the beauty of the artists.

Despite the troubles that many of these ASMRtists face, they still continue to strive to provide services for those who use it for its intended purpose: relaxation. The future of the community is ever-expanding and looks extraordinarily bright as it becomes more progressive. The impact of these simple sounds has created a massive ripple on YouTube and has reached the millions of people who need it most.

ASMRtist Recommendations: Goodnight Moon, ASMR Glow, Tony Bomboni, Gibi ASMR, Karuna Satori ASMR, Latte ASMR, ASMRMagic, The White Rabbit ASMR, Angelica, PJ Dreams, DiamondASMR

Bibliography

“ASMR: I Can Make Your Brain Tingle.” BBC News, BBC, 23 Oct. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/av/newsbeat-45957504/asmr-i-can-make-your-brain-tin.

Ferguson, Donna. “Whisper It... ASMR Videos Are the Quiet Revolution Going Global.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Oct. 2018, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/06/sensory-videos-relaxation.

Lopez, German. “ASMR, Explained: Why Millions of People Are Watching YouTube Videos of Someone Whispering.” Vox, Vox, 25 May 2018, www.vox.com/2015/7/15/8965393/asmr-video-youtube-autonomous-sensory-meridian-response.

Image credits to Val (Animaker)