#also the official audio thumbnail looks suspiciously like a music video…

[indigostreaking]

They really said “here’s the studio version and the live version at 12pm on a Tuesday” 😳

[charlotteroseessex-blog]

ASMR

Say what?

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is a revolutionary phenomenon set to take over YouTube. The sensory responses are caused when sensations are endured throughout the entire body from an auditory or visual encounter. In recent years, the obsession with experiencing these feelings have become more publicised through uploaded videos and content available online, constituting a global trend that now even celebrities are attempting to produce. 

Despite the initial introduction of ASMR in 2007; on an online health page displaying inquisitions about a suspicious tingling, the surge of popularity has only recently peaked in 2017. Since then, the boom of ASMR videos have become almost uncontrollable with people uploading progressively strange content, like crunching on raw carrots and cracking knuckles - all for the viewers satisfaction. Each to their own, right? Some of you may be wondering, “where can I watch ASMR videos? I’m really intrigued to see if I have the symptoms!” Well look no further curious one! YouTube is filled to the brim with budding ASMR wannabe vloggers who would kill for the extra view on their whispering video. Yes, I said whispering video.

Is ASMR contagious, do I need a doctor?

Not everyone experiences ASMR, the triggers are unique and a much smaller percentage of people are susceptible to the sensations than you may think. Whether you’re ASMR curious or not, I may have got you thinking, “how do I know if I’m prone to ASMR?” Well, if you’ve ever embarked on a process of internal relaxation, triggered by a tingling sensation overcoming your entire body, whilst also in a transitory state, then I can confirm your encounter with ASMR. 

Usually, ASMR occurs in the presence of a really calming voice, like a teacher or doctor, when their tone of speech is so smooth and idyllic it causes you to undergo tingling sensations - which commonly begin on your scalp or at the back of your neck. It sounds weirder than it actually is, I swear. From this point, an ‘ASMR takeover’ will absorb you when a wave of calmness washes over your entire body and the only noise of clarity is that inducing your ASMR experience. So no, it’s not a disease or contagion you need to be scared of, nor are you likely to develop ASMR the more videos you watch. It’s simply just an experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling”, it’s actually something to be desired if you ask me.

The concept of ASMR, especially the content on YouTube, relies heavily on the multimodal influences on the viewing pleasure of the audience and whether or not the aesthetics are calm and relaxing enough to absorb viewers entirely during their experience. The power of the visual aspects must allow for those watching to be completely and utterly in a trance with the words and actions of the ASMR creator, rather than be distracted by the art piece on the wall behind them, or curious of the individual walking past the nearby window. ASMR videos pull explicitly on the connection between sight and sound, as the multimodal elements help influence this with spoken language and imagery administered in the content.

Let’s have a listen.

The reliance placed upon the intricacies of execution is dependent upon, not only the avoidance of visual distractions and assurance of visual pleasure, but also the provision of vocalised audios and sounds (like the bristles on a hair brush or cutting paper). The audios present guidance from the narrator which is accompanied by the sounds featured in creating a desirable ASMR experience. Audio elements are vital for the true sensations of ASMR to fully absorb the mind, body and soul. Think of something that when you listen to it, you emerge into a state of complete tranquillity and find yourself in absolute serenity created purely by listening to this one unique sound. Just like how some of us are at our most peaceful when listening to a calming story, meditative music or a soothing voice like Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough, others may turn to ASMR because to them, listening to someone whisper or chew through a microphone creates the same euphoric sensation.

Having outlined the importance in sound, I think its also worth investigating the recent evolution in visual aspects assisting these audios. Due to the increase in popularity of ASMR and its recent domination of the content featured on YouTube, it’s growing adoration can be held accountable for the demand in visualisation becoming a modern feature of ASMR. The multimodal elements of aesthetics portray emphasis on the importance of beautification and attraction towards making an AMSR video stand out amongst the thousands of others - just like how a magazine will try to catch your eye, YouTubers hope to grab your attention in a similar way.

So let’s take a look.

Much like how you would expect to see beautiful models wearing gorgeous clothes in a high brand fashion magazine, ASMR videos experience the same pressures as their audiences expect to apprehend pleasurable viewing experiences. Not only are the visual aspects of the background important to producing a successful ASMR video, but the demeanour of the individual creating the experience is equally as influential. Now, don’t get it twisted, ASMR is not shallow. I’m not suggesting that only really good looking people are allowed to make these videos - anyone can do it - however what I am implying is that the YouTubers overall appearance and presentation has a dramatic impact on the viewers desire to watch or keep watching. Take a look at the thumbnails below of each ASMR video uploaded to YouTube and try to consider which one you would rather watch:

The first icon features a warmth to the video with the simplicity of only neutral colours involved. Here the YouTuber has created an immediate relaxation in the visionary experience, as the mellow tones exhume an assurance of calm. The absence of distracting and dominating colours, allows for the creator to ensure full engagement between their performance and the viewers gaze. Without having even played the video yet, the viewing expectations remain high based on the levels of intricacy, as the consideration of external factors create a placidity for the viewer. Once pressing play to immerse into the video and embark on the journey of ASMR, the temporal and sequential logic of the YouTubers speech (if executed successfully) ensures flow and rhythm to her words. This precision of a carefully constructed narrative evokes a logic to the speech and assures a linear processing from the listener due to their engagement with the video. The partnership of visual and auditory elements collaborate in producing a tranquil and effective video, assured by the absence of distractions which allows the relaxation to fully transpire. Polysemous is prevalent in this first video as she immediately engages the audience and in doing so, maintains consistent interest as the clip progresses. 

The second icon portrays a diminished professionalism and is thought to be one of the worst ASMRs ever published on YouTube (as officiated by them, not me). Immediately, the viewing pleasure of the icon conflicts with the first, as the reduction in aesthetics from the poorly lit room presents a blinding whiteness of her face which makes her features almost impossible to interpret. This is already a distracting element as I find myself wondering what her real features are like… both random and irrelevant to the video. The background is also very cluttered which encourages the eye to wonder and focus on aspects other than the YouTubers logic of speech. The visual distractions obstruct the relationship between the viewer and the speaker and the audiences engagement with paying attention and listening is broken down. The disruption of sequential logic suggests a failure to the linearity of speech initially intended to create a calming effect and achieve an ASMR experience - this video fails.

ASMR and health.

In identifying the artificially provoked sensations of ASMR videos, through deliberately searching online, there have been many health benefits discovered in recent years when assessing its calming effects on the public. Through the mechanism of relaxing audios and visuals, it is suggested that the sensations endured when perceiving an ASMR video can be presented as a coping mechanism for stressful situations (especially for those suffering with mental health issues) due to it’s soothing side-effects. ASMR also claims to have beneficial influences on your sleeping pattern, suggesting that listening to a video before bed will help you not only to drift off, but remain in a mellow mind set throughout your nights sleep. Just like many of us will turn to music or movies before bed to tire our eyes, others resort to watching an ASMR video to seek a more advanced calming strategy. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Going public.

In order to understand the publics current awareness of ASMR and whether or not it is as popular as sources claim, I carried out a survey on a small group of people. My questions attempted to gage an insight into the usage of ASMR videos and whether people rely on, or are open to trying, the YouTube trend. In retrospect, my initial expectations of the results conflicted with my findings by the virtue of my naivety about the vast awareness, curiosity and openness from my sample groups previous experience to watching ASMR videos. The surge in popularity of ASMR online content explains the 100% confirmation in their familiarity with the genre, which then resulted in only 58.33% of the group admitting they had experienced sensory response symptoms. These results were to be expected, as not everyone is likely to obtain the same sensitivity towards artificial sounds and digital visual engagement.

In developing my interest into the current reliance on ASMR, and other meditative strategies when coping with mental health, I provided a 1-100 scale so the respondents could mark their current level of anxiousness. This was important to the survey as I wanted to use this personal insight to understand whether ASMR was calming for everyone, or just those prone to experiencing the sensations. As the results show, the average level of anxiety was 36% which provided a small passage of improvement for the results after watching the ASMR video.

Having analysed the initial levels of anxiety, I was interested in researching current reliable calming strategies when coping with stressful situations. In the results displayed below, it is clear that the most popular strategy was listening to music (41.67%) with the least being ASMR and other therapeutic videos (8.33%). The results suggest that ASMR hasn’t yet reached its highest level of potential in receiving exposure towards its desired audiences. With music being the most popular choice, it explains that accessibility and transportation is vital when appealing to the general public. As ASMR relies profusely on the multimodal functions of visualisation, the act of watching videos can be considered quite embarrassing if demonstrated in public. Imagine being on a bus sat next to a middle aged man and on his phone displays an ASMR video with someone pretending to give him a haircut - yes these videos do exist. The importance of polysemous being present in an ASMR experience is the main element which creates the immediate affect of tranquillity, so ASMR has to be intently observed for the best endurance. It would be strange though, right? So you can’t blame people for resorting to subtlety, a hidden phone in your pocket connected to earphones beats openly watching people whisper or heavily breath into a mic.

Proceeding on from this topic of calming mechanisms, I wanted to introduce the concept of ASMR and the feelings evoked from participant observations. I asked for the participants to watch a small portion of the video provided and then express the feelings raised. Undeniably, my expectations was that the video would provoke sensations of calm or even induce ASMR symptoms. However, as previously stated, ASMR is not for everyone and so 58.33% felt uncomfortable watching the video. From the results, the demonstration of distressed behaviour reflects the breakdown of the logic of speech. Through the rejection displayed by the listener, the temporal and sequential speech of the YouTuber prevents the formation of a linear processing, consequently destroying the likelihood of an effective experience. (Here is the link to the video participants watched: https://youtu.be/fZnptZ2wI88 )

Having now observed the video, participants quickly conflicted their notions of feeling uneasy by outlining what they felt were the most relaxing features. In this question, participants were allowed to respond with more than one answer, this was done to conceive the most impactful relationship included in ASMR video features. With only 2 participants conveying their answer as ‘None’, 66.67% regarded the ‘Whispering’ as most relaxing, closely followed by the considerations of ‘Visual imagery of soft colours’ scoring at 33.33%. The partnership of the senses, sight and sound, support the successful execution of semiotic modes being vital for an impactful ASMR video. The visual and spoken logics of multimodality presents a strengthening to the YouTubers creation of meaning in the content they post, which is justified by the whispering and imagery concluded as the most effective features.

After providing the participants with current ASMR content, I thought that to revisit the question of anxiousness would provide an affective development regarding their feelings towards the experience. Although having observed the negation towards ASMR, I anticipated that the results would portray an increase rather than an envisioned decrease. Since the first insight into the participants levels of anxiety, compared to after the observation of ASMR, the results showed an 8% increase from 36% to 42% feeling anxious. I can assume from these results that the cause of increase is due to those immune to ASMR rating very highly, compared to those reporting a decrease in anxiety with half the participants ranking from 20 or below.

By carrying out this survey I was able to gage an insight into the realistic perceptions of the public towards ASMR, as well as to understand why people are less likely to rely on it as a coping mechanism. Despite only 41.67% claiming that they would now resort to ASMR videos as a calming strategy; with an even smaller percentage accepting the option as a method of inducing sleep or reducing stress (33.33%), the overall factorship of ASMR presents alternative calming strategies made easily accessible for everyday people. Throughout the duration of this survey, the awareness raised for the effectiveness of ASMR has allowed for a very small proportion to experience and reflect on meditative approaches suitable for stressful or struggling times. It has also suggested that multimodality plays a vital role in producing affective content, as well as the fact that until we all stop caring about the opinions of others (especially in public), ASMR might slowly but surely be as dependent as listening to music.

RAPPIN’ it up.

My indulge into the world of ASMR might put you off ever diving into the world of YouTubes sensory dark corners, but despite what you may think it’s actually really quite normal. Loads of us are prone to the tingling sensory reactions, whether you wanna admit it or not. Cardi B is a loud and proud ASMR advocate. Yes, the biggest female rapper that there ever was openly admits her reliance on ASMR. She even goes so far to claim her nightly dependence in order to sleep and supposedly obsesses over newly released ASMR content. Cardi even gave it a go herself by creating a video whilst whispering answers for a magazine interview. Multitasking at its finest. 

And don’t think she’s the only celeb to dip her toe into the weird and wonderful world of sensory gratification either...

It seems that in correlation with the growing popularity of ASMR, celebs from all backgrounds are jumping on the bandwagon. Will this surge in celebrity intervention normalise the desire for whisper videos? Putting a well known face on the front of a video entitled ‘Emily Ratajkowski Explores ASMR with Whispers, Leather, and a Lint Roller’ imposes an indexicality by elements of luxury and superiority surrounding the audience that indulge in these videos. 

So why encourage ASMR as a hobby doted on by icons? Does the concept of Emily Ratajkowski whispering on camera make the idea of ASMR a more desirable watch? If so, does this suggest the sexualisation of an ASMR experience is provoked by the intimacy of multimodal features?

ASMR: Okurrr

Sources: 

If you find yourself wanting to experience ASMR beyond Cardi B’s interpretation, the links to the featured videos are here below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zltEvQK03Hs 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLV5dXtHT-Q 

https://www.youtube.com/user/wmagazinedotcom