ASMR: the internet’s secret to relaxation

by Charlie Kaneer, Opinion Section Editor

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

GibiASMR, known for being one of the most popular ASMRtists on YouTube, poses with a covered-mic in order to make sounds for her next video. Photo cred: GibiASMR.

Hellooo, hellooo... Welcome to my ASMR story. Now, I can’t give you ASMR through written words, but that was my honest attempt. Like many, I developed various quarantine obsessions and each came and went with time. However, one of the few that stuck with me was my discovery of ASMR.

I’ve known about ASMR for years because most of my friends at this point had been into it and I always teased them about it. Oh, how wrong I was about everything I said (and very embarrassed to now explain my love for it). Many are unaware of what ASMR is and are especially unaware of what the acronym stands for. ASMR means “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.”

Like I mentioned before, I used to relentlessly tease my friends for liking ASMR. It’s people like I was, who don’t understand the reason behind someone watching another person eat or tap on random books for an hour, that give ASMR a bit of a bad reputation. Ren Conklin (10) agrees, stating they think “sometimes it gets a bad rep for being weird and uncomfortable.” I was deeply troubled by the noises until I understood their purpose.

There are multiple purposes for listening to ASMR. Not everyone who watches ASMR actually experiences ASMR. In the ASMR community, what is referred to as “tingles” is the actual feeling of ASMR. It is a ticklish kind of feeling usually felt on the crown of your head or down your back, and can also spread to other areas of your body. Not everyone is able to get these “tingles”- and for some it takes very specific sounds to experience them. Listeners who experience tingles can also experience “tingle-immunity” where they have to find new sets of sounds to trigger the response.

On the other hand, some people simply listen to it for relaxation purposes. People like Mr. Redman (Gov.) use it for this purpose. He explains, “I don't personally get much out of the ASMR videos/recordings that feature sounds of people chewing, or whispering, or things like that, but I do like some of the YouTube videos that make the sounds of coffee shops or libraries where you can hear little diegetic background sounds while music plays. Those are relaxing and I like to have them on while I do classwork for Grad School.” They can help you focus or aid meditation. I use it often for sleep. I experience PTSD symptoms often when trying to sleep or while sleeping and ASMR has helped me so much in alleviating the panic I used to associate with sleep. My sleeping schedule is better than it ever has been- and I have ASMR to thank for that.

I truly recommend everyone give ASMR a try. I would recommend trying three or four different videos with a mix of sounds and with and without talking. I believe others can be helped by it like I was.