BY SCOTT NISWANDER
SUPER-NICHE
SUPER-NICHE
ASMR is the Best Artform on YouTube That
You’re Not Watching
I’m in the middle of a huge move. I’ve moved frequently throughout my life, but this is different. It’s
a vast 1100 mile change, and for the first time, I’m making it all alone. It’s stressful and is taking a
toll on my anxiety. To calm down during long nights of packing and planning every draining detail
of my move, I turn on YouTube and load up a few videos of people gently whispering into a micro-
phone while tapping and brushing random things from around the house.
This is the world of ASMR, and
on the surface, these videos can
seem completely strange. A quick
search through YouTube will yield
endless results of people talking
intimately into microphones, fid-
dling with any object they can find
that “makes good sounds,” and
roleplaying seemingly mundane
scenarios like getting a checkup by
a soft-spoken doctor or receiving
a haircut as the sound of scissors makes gentle snips
around the camera.
These videos can get millions upon millions of
views on YouTube in a short amount of time, so what
exactly is going on here? What is ASMR and what
makes it so wildly popular?
THE BASICS
ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Re-
sponse and describes a tingling sensation some people
experience on their skin — usually on the top of their