For countless ASMR viewers, the videos are like threads loosely holding together the viewer’s well-being. They aren’t a leisure activity; they are a sedative for a generation incapable of confronting silence
Photo: Charles Thatcher/Getty Images I softly rock my daughter to sleep singing an old Irish folk song as she tries her best to resist, but she’s too weak for my soft “hushes,” and gentle stroking of her cheek. Her breaths grow slower and deeper. Her eyelids flutter. As her eyes finally stick closed and her miniature fists uncurl, I lay her in her crib.Then I slide into bed next to my husband, pop some headphones in and press play on an unfinished YouTube video.
“I just love your beautiful blue eyes,” she says wrinkling her nose as she impishly smiles and pulls out a mascara brush. I have brown eyes, but I suspend disbelief. It’s all part of what ASMR, or “autonomous sensory meridian response,” viewers make for themselves. Holding the glowing rectangle of warm light loosely in my hands she peers at me, whispering between a staccato of closing eyelids.
But maybe ASMR isn’t merely a trend. There is reason to believe it is a real, lasting phenomenon, one signaling deep millennial distress and a new form of self-medication. A 2015 study on ASMR triggers found that 82 percent of individuals engage who in ASMR do so to help them fall asleep. Since the advent of ASMR infatuation, there have been growing numbers of Reddit boards devoted to ASMR addiction.
“I have an awful time falling asleep and oftentimes can’t turn my brain off when it’s time to go to bed. I used to distract myself with any YouTube video at all. I found myself gravitating toward relaxing voices, makeup tutorials, massage videos, then I found ASMR,” she told me. “If I didn’t find ASMR, I don’t know where I would be right now in terms of mental health or sleep.”
Gibi has a theory about why this is. “I think we are in a time of great mental stress. ASMR is an amazing option for people because it’s accessible, it’s free, and it’s safe. I suspect, and experience, that ASMR is tied to nostalgia and a childlike mental ‘safe space.’ ASMR provides that platonic intimacy that most people can only relate to how their mothers or parental figures made them feel.”
I played the game. Drones, bitcoin, gluten-free, Beyoncé — none of them were lasting trends resembling the ASMR trend.
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