ASMR: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
Someone finally named the fuzzy feeling that helped make Bob Ross so popular in the 1980s and 1990s, that feeling most of us would get when we watched him attentively draw up some happy little tree trunks, or hand feed the squirrel he kept in his pocket. The sound that his brush or knife made as he rubbed them gently on his canvas.
Other things that also give that feeling is when we’re getting a haircut, being fitted for a suit, pants or shoes or even being inspected by a doctor.
Recently, someone figured out how to trigger that warm blanket feeling and repeat it, in fact a simple search for ASMR on the immensely popular YouTube video site returns dozens and dozens of ASMR videos, mostly by young girls who use specialized 3D microphones to record themselves as they perform simple tasks like scratching a hairbrush, move around some cotton balls or simply pretend to give a scalp examination to the viewer while whispering basic instructions in the ear. There’s even a dentist’s appointment although I have to admit that it might be better classified in the horror column.
Not entirely unpleasant, the ASMR feeling is so much wanted by so many, that one YouTube producer in particular has over 55,000 channel subscribers and a total amount of views that is flirting with 20,000,000 which is a whole lot of views for videos where nobody sings in Korean and nobody falls off a skateboard or BMX bicycle.
Having said that, I can only assume it’s only a matter of time until the government either forbids this ASMR thing, or finds a way to tax it and make a profit.
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