Are you one of the many, many people that gets a tingly kick from watching soft-spoken YouTubers tapping and whispering into their mics from hours on end? Have I got some bad vibes for you.
If you’re not into ASMR or you’ve never heard of it, here’s a quick rundown: ASMR is short for autonomous sensory meridian response, and it’s the name of the sensation some people derive from hours-long videos of someone whispering into a camera at them. Some people describe the feeling as “tingles” across the back of their neck, while others say it’s relaxing enough to fall asleep to. Personally, this reporter gets nothing out of them, and never has—if I’m falling asleep to, say, a 10 minute video of some guy carving wood, it’ll be out of boredom, not relaxation.
With that in mind, I decided to dive down the rabbit hole of ASMRtists (not a joke, that’s what they call themselves) to see if I could find some videos in this genre that make me feel… something. If I wasn’t getting the elusive tingly feelings so many others were raving about, maybe I could find ASMR that dredged up feelings of visceral disgust or discomfort. Literally anything.
It didn’t take me long. I found an alcove of strange videos that made my spine itch. Here’s a list of 11 personal favorites, along with the “triggers”—the word the ASMR community uses when describing the different sounds used to dredge up different sensations in viewers.
