Anny Sam
ENG 2150
Professor Seth Graves
4/17/2019
ASMR: Coping in Newer Times
I remember not being able to sleep growing up; even now it is still hard to sleep at home. I feel this pressure and anxiety from school, friends, or family and it causes tons of stress. I was wandering on YouTube and I found a video that did scratching and tapping ASMR and I was intrigued. It felt like a drug that relaxed me, I felt a surge of relief that spread through my skull from one temple to the other and it would last from the time the person’s nails just touches the surface of the board to the slow and extended downwards scratch on the board and would end once the person releases her fingers, then it repeats. This helped me cope with a lot of stress from school and provided me an escape or help with sleep when I couldn’t. Personal health is affected by social media. Many social media trends that have began to gain popularity, the New York Times even published a few articles about these social trends. One of these social trends is ASMR and it stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, it is used to describe a particular feeling that is related to “tingly sensations” throughout the body. This ASMR feeling is triggered by particular repetitive sounds, however, not every sound will trigger people nor will any sound trigger just everyone. That’s why there are so many different kinds of sounds people like to listen to for the ASMR feeling. Some people like tapping or scratching on different surfaces while others may enjoy whispering and role playing. In addition, there is a specific kind of ASMR that is basically “eating ASMR.” ASMRists, those who create videos of ASMR triggers, eat specific kinds of food to create unique chewing sounds and that is something I personally enjoy a lot. This topic raises the question as to what is the point to even watching ASMR videos? There are people who think there is a sexual fetish to these videos but for the majority of the viewers, it is not. The main point to watching and listening to these ASMR videos is to combat illnesses such as depression, insomnia, and anxiety. Since social media has been in the picture, there have been many platforms for people to impose a society expectation which causes depression or anxiety when attempting to fulfill these expectations, to be good enough. Thus, the ASMR phenomenon gained popularity just in time to treat those who suffer through these mental illnesses.
To start off, ASMR is a social trend found on social platforms such as YouTube. These trends wouldn’t be available if the internet didn’t give the viewers access to these videos. There would be no audience for those who created ASMR triggers and no one would even know that such a thing existed. Even the term “ASMR” was created on a social media platform, an ASMR Facebook group, by Jennifer Allen (Gibson). According to The New York Times, in the article, “Rustle, Tingle, Relax: The Compelling World of A.S.M.R.” Fairyington states, “There were nearly 2.6 million videos depicting a phenomenon called autonomous sensory meridian response, or A.S.M.R., designed to evoke a tingling sensation that travels over the scalp or other parts of the body…” This quote demonstrates how popular ASMR is becoming and how this trend is made for these “tingles” to provide relief and relaxation. Altogether, the internet provided social media platforms for an immense amount of viewers to acquire ASMR tingles throughout their body in the safety of their homes.
Now, ASMR is not for everyone or not every person gets tingles from the same ASMR trigger, which is why there are so many kinds of ASMR videos. Published in the journal PLOS One, there was a study where scientists used a sample size of 1000 people and only 813 identified having ASMR (Poerio, et al 4). This demonstrates how 187 people did not experience ASMR after watching the ASMR videos and thus, either it is not for them or they have not found the right sounds to trigger their ASMR. This is why it is essential to have numerous kinds of sounds and videos for ASMR. Not everyone will be triggered by the same sound because not everyone is the same. In comparison, everyone has their own likes and dislikes on what food to eat, everyone has their own tastes on fashion, and the same goes for ASMR triggers, everyone likes different things so it makes sense that everyone has their own preference onto which ASMR triggers they have and prefer. Some examples of these ASMR triggers are tapping and scratching on random surfaces, role-playing, chewing sounds, cutting objects or foods, lip smacking, and even lighting matches. Therefore, for those who do enjoy these ASMR videos and feel the ASMR “tingles” will all have their own sensations through triggers that may or may not be the same for other people.
In fact, there are many kinds of ASMR triggers that ASMRtists produce in their videos for content. Like mentioned before, ASMRtists are those who create videos of ASMR triggers. In a YouTube channel by a very well known ASMRtist, SAS-ASMR, SAS eats a variety of foods such as honeycomb, candied fruits, macaroons, aloe vera, sea grapes, and even raw octopus. She currently has 6.1 million subscribers and gets about a million or millions of views in her videos depending on what kinds of food she eats. She is known to do strictly eating ASMR which is a genre in ASMR to hear people chew on different kinds of food. In eating ASMR, there are “popular foods” to eat because of the sound it makes when it’s being chewed on trigger many and depending on which ones the viewers generally like has more or less views. For example, popular foods would be aloe vera and honey comb. These are generally popular or mainstream in the food ASMR community because it is what has the most viewers. Some of SAS’s most viewed videos are from eating aloe vera or honeycomb. Her aloe vera ASMR eating video has 22 million views and her honeycomb video has 33 million views. Her videos are generally set up very close up and personal; the camera view is set up to the point where the subscriber can only see her mouth and the platter of food in front of her. She always wears a headset or any kind of audio set so she can also hear the sounds she makes to the microphone. In her videos, she always has a nice thick coat of lip stick on as it appeals to the viewer to watch since the main objects in the video are the food and her mouth eating the food. If she eats aloe vera or honey comb the sound is sticky and wet but if she eats sea grapes or chips the sound is crunchy. In brief, there are many kinds of ASMR genres which give a wide variety to each viewer to find which one they prefer.
Since there are millions of videos out there for ASMR, there are millions more viewers watching these kinds of videos. Those with full-time jobs and celebrities even watch ASMR to help with their issues. For example, a very well known rap artist named Cardi B listens to ASMR everyday in order to sleep. She mentions this when filming an ASMR interview video with W magazine. During this interview, she produces a very “triggering”, according to the comments, ASMR video which creates tingles for many of the viewers. Many comments of the video even mention how they watched the interview video multiple times because Cardi created so many tingles for them and helped them fall asleep. In the video, Cardi B makes use of many objects and whispers to trigger ASMR for the viewer. She begins the video by whispering into two microphones (one microphone is for the left ear and the other is for the right ear), she whispers “okurr” and rolls the –r sound while alternating to each microphone. She also makes use of hand gestures which are a visual trigger for some people when watching the video. Cardi waves her hand up and down slowly as if she was caressing the viewer’s face to go sleep. She talks about her life and scratches the microphones slowly with her nails to relax the viewer, being very intimate with the viewer when looking into the camera and brushing her nails. Even some words trigger ASMR when she said them and since Cardi is a regular watcher she utilized these words showing her expertise in watching ASMR videos. In her ASMR interview, she used words such as, words that begin with “t” or “s” and she repeats this multiple times. W Magazine gives her a few things to play with for the ASMR video and she is first given a rug. Cardi rubs the rug against the microphone and touches the rug in circular motions while whispering into the microphones answering questions given to her for the interview. Cardi takes the rug and also waves that up and down and gives the viewers an imaginative scenario, also known as role playing, as if they were right there with her to lie against the rug and feel how warm the rug is. Finally, she is given a children’s toy to play with. The toy contains beads and she slides the beads from one side to another to make a “click” sound and then taps on the wood the toy is made with. This shows how there are all kinds of ASMR videos and different kinds of triggers. Many people including celebrities listen to ASMR to help them relax from their own problems. ASMR has become a very popular trend online since it is used for many reasons such as stress from deadlines for projects, exams, or personal issues. Therefore, ASMR was made to adapt to millions of peoples’ need to relax and sleep, regardless of who the person is.
Now, many viewers of ASMRtists watch their videos to relax and cope with their issues. In the article, “Rustle, Tingle, Relax: The Compelling World of A.S.M.R.” Fairyington writes that two very well known ASMRtists said that many of their followers sent them notes of gratitude and thanked them for relieving them of anxiety, insomnia, and melancholy that their videos provided. This shows how viewers do truly feel grateful for these videos because they experience first-hand the reliefs these triggers provide, it is not all weird.
However, on first impression ASMR media can seem sexual due to its intimate nature with the ASMRtist and the viewer. ASMR videos are designed in a way were the ASMRtist gives complete attention to making the viewer feel more relaxed and soothing which can be taken the wrong way. This is only a common misconception about the phenomenon. Two studies were conducted and demonstrated that ASMR is not related to sexual arousal and most people describe ASMR as a clearly non-sexual feeling. Their research has shown that “…sexual arousal is not a reliable outcome of watching ASMR videos” (Poerio, et al 14). This demonstrates that ASMR is not meant for sexual purposes and shuts down the common misconception. In addition, in the article, “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state” they say how only a small amount of people, 5%, have reported using ASMR videos for sexual stimulation while 84% of participants disagree with this statement (5). For the most part, ASMR videos are not to please viewers sexually, but are used for stress, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.
Today, mostly everyone experiences stress, whether you are a teenager, an adult, or even a senior citizen, everyone goes through something that causes some kind of anxiety. For example, any kind of deadline, exams, homework or work in general. According to a national poll done by NPR with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, they found that more than one in every four Americans had dealt with a great deal of stress in the previous month and that half of all adults experienced a major stressful event from the previous year (Knox and Neighmond). This statistic shows how a majority of adults have experienced stress to a high degree. ASMR videos can help cope with this stress. In the article, “What Exactly Is ASMR?” by Cory Stieg, Dr. Richard says, how feelings of calmness and relaxation release many neurotransmitters such as endorphins, ocytocin, and serotonin and it’s likely that when experiencing ASMR, there is a release of these transmitters in the brain.” This means that when people experience ASMR, they feel calm and relaxed which helps people when they go through periods of stress and anxiety. Also, published in the journal PLOS One, they state, “After watching a range of ASMR videos, ASMR participants reported more frequent tingling, increased levels of excitement and calmness, and decreased levels of stress and sadness” (Poerio, et al 8). This quote is another example of how experiencing these sensations provide positive feelings towards people, and thus, helps one with feeling stress.
Likewise, when the feeling of ASMR helps those feeling stress can also help those with insomnia. Even if ASMR videos do not give the watcher any “tingles”, according to Shiffer, Mary Ellen Wells, Ph.D., director and assistant professor at Neurodiagnostics and Sleep Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of North Carolina at Charlotte, says how doing something boring and monotonous can help one sleep if their mind is racing before they go to bed and ASMR videos consists of those qualities. This evidence proves how ASMR videos can help those who suffer from insomnia by incorporating techniques that facilitate sleep. It isn’t just Wells who says how this phenomenon can help with sleep, Gielia Poerio, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. says how the ASMR response can apply for things like insomnia, anxiety, and other issues and how some people are already using it for those purposes (Dozier). Given these points, this just exemplifies the fact that ASMR tingles can help those with mental illness such as stress and insomnia.
Moreover, ASMR tingles help symptoms of anxiety on top of stress and insomnia. According to the 2015 study in the article, “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state” Barratt and Davis writes how 98% of individuals seek out ASMR for a chance for relaxation, 82% of individuals use ASMR to help them sleep, and 70% use ASMR to deal with stress and anxiety relief (5). These statistics demonstrate that a majority of ASMR viewers use ASMR to help them feel relieved, relaxed, and to help them sleep. Many of the participants also added that they use ASMR videos for help where other therapeutic and medical interventions have been unable to assist. This indicates that ASMR can be used for multiple mental illnesses or for therapeutic reasons to help ease the viewer’s negative symptoms to whatever they are experiencing.
Correspondingly, ASMR media also helps people with depression and chronic illness. In the article, “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state” Barratt and Davis writes, “Sixty-nine percent of those who scored moderate to severe on the BDI [Beck Depression Inventory, measures depression status] reported using ASMR to ease their symptoms of depression” (8). This study result demonstrates how ASMR is used to provide some kind of relief for depression to its viewers. In the same article, they state, “Those suffering from symptoms of chronic pain also benefitted from ASMR, seeing a significant reduction in their discomfort for several hours following an ASMR session.” Many have even reported that even after they stopped watching the ASMR videos, their moods and symptoms of pain had been improved. (11). This also shows how ASMR can be used in multiple cases to help those who suffer through depression or chronic illness on top of other mental illness. In summary, this media trend provides natural relief without medication to those suffering from various forms of illness.
In conclusion, social trends such as ASMR are a social phenomenon that has surfaced as the internet, alongside social media, has grown to be more popular and mainstream. The internet and social media platforms have provided an audience that are all around the world to watch these ASMRists. The internet provides a safe space at home to watch these videos and gives ASMRists the pleasure of knowing they are giving their viewers relief from whatever they are experiencing. People watch and listen to ASMR videos because viewers claim that it helps them sleep and relief other mental disorders such as depression. All in all, this phenomenon is used as a coping method for some of the mental and physical problems people face today.
Based on all my research done on the social phenomenon, ASMR, our group has decided to incorporate it into a film or episode series. The film will discuss how social media has either helped or hurt society today. We will implement a variety of scenarios into the show and based on each one of our arguments will incorporate how our research topic has helped or hurt people. For example, my topic is ASMR. I will be creating a scene or plot incorporating ASMR and how it has helped a young teen with their stress and anxiety. My group members will be doing the same thing, creating a scene or plot incorporating their research topic into their scene and deciding whether or not their aspect of social media has helped or hurt society. I will also be the one in charge of choosing the artworks for each of our scenes. The artworks I choose will aim to represent the entirety, main idea, or theme of each one of our scenes and also will be a motif of the scene shown. In some cases, the artworks will also be used as a foreshadowing tool as it will represent the downfall of the character based on each scene.
Works Cited
ASMR, SAS. YouTube, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp4LfMtDfoa29kTlLnqQ5 Mg. Accessed 15 Apr. 2019.
Barratt, L. Emma and Nick J. Davis. “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state.” PeerJ (2015). Web.
“Cardi B Explores ASMR | W Magazine.” YouTube, uploaded by W magazine, 22 October 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUMygkRhB88.
Dozier, Rob. “Can ASMR Be Used to Treat Anxiety of Insomnia?” SLATE, 25 July 2018.
Fairyington, Stephanie. “Rustle, Tingle, Relax: The Compelling World of A.S.M.R.” The New York Times, 28 July 2014.
Gibson, Caitlin. “A whisper, then tingles, then 87 million YouTube views: Meet the star of ASMR.” The Washington Post, 15 December 2014.
Kay, Karen. “From social media to the catwalk, is fantasy beauty failing young women?” The Guardian, 5 December 2015.
Knox, Richard and Patti Neighmond. “For Many Americans, Stress Takes A Toll On Health And Family.” NPR, 7 July 2014.
Poerio, L. Giulia, et al.”More than a Feeling: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) Is Characterized by Reliable Changes in Affect and Physiology.” PLoS ONE 13.6 (2018): E0196645. Web.
Shiffer, Emily. “What Is ASMR? How YouTube ‘Whisper Videos’ May Be Able to Help Treat Insomnia.” Men’s Health, 27 September 2018.
Stieg, Cory. “What Exactly Is ASMR?” Refinery29, 7 February 2017.