Latest / Mini Scroll / The Mainstream-ification of ASMR Content: From Whisper Community to Celebrity Gag

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The Mainstream-ification of ASMR Content: From Whisper Community to Celebrity Gag · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  In April 2013, I was laying in bed in my university bedroom,
• 0:04
  scrolling through YouTube. It was exam season, and I was
• 0:07
  exhausted, stressed, and hoping to find something that would
• 0:10
  relax me in this moment. I couldn't stop thinking about
• 0:13
  this feeling I once had as a child when I overheard my mother
• 0:17
  and her friend speaking softly in the other room.
• 0:20
  My brain felt hypnotized, and my entire body felt like it was
• 0:23
  weightless, floating in an endless ocean.
• 0:26
  I wanted to relive that feeling, but I had no idea how to find
• 0:30
  it. I typed some variation of soft
• 0:33
  voice for relaxation into YouTube search bar and clicked
• 0:36
  on a video by a creator named Lilium.
• 0:39
  At the start of this video, Lilium asked me to put
• 0:41
  headphones in before whispering affirmations and soothing words
• 0:44
  to me ear to ear. I remember feeling
• 0:47
  uncomfortable, like I was watching something I should not
• 0:50
  have been watching, and I quickly turned it off.
• 0:52
  This was my first introduction to ASMR, and Lilium, unbeknownst
• 0:57
  to me at that time, was one of the pioneering creators in this
• 1:01
  space. Though ASMR content didn't stick
• 1:04
  with me right away, Lilium's video was a gateway for me to
• 1:07
  discovering an entire community on YouTube dedicated to helping
• 1:11
  viewers relax. As I looked into this community,
• 1:14
  I eventually found content and creators that I resonated with,
• 1:18
  and 11 years later, I still watch ASMR videos every single
• 1:23
  night to help me fall asleep. This is the history of ASMR, a
• 1:27
  genre that was underground and miss understood for years until
• 1:31
  it finally hit its stride, becoming one of the most popular
• 1:34
  genres on YouTube today. From Centennial World, I'm
• 1:39
  Lauren Meisner and this is Infinite Scroll, a podcast about
• 1:42
  Internet culture, the creator economy and how social media is
• 1:45
  shaping. Jen Zed.
• 1:47
  Welcome back to Infinite Scroll, everyone.
• 1:49
  I am so excited to bring you guys the history of ASMR. Like I
• 1:54
  just said, I have literally been listening and watching ASMR for
• 1:59
  years, like 10 plus years, every single day, hours a day.
• 2:03
  It is my favorite genre by far and I was really interested in
• 2:08
  diving into how it started, its origins, some of its, you know,
• 2:11
  most prominent creators, its most prominent moments, and I
• 2:15
  have all of that for you. So as always, Please remember to
• 2:19
  rate, review, and subscribe. It helps me so much.
• 2:21
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  subscribers on YouTube. I do not believe we will be
• 2:26
  there by the time this goes up. I was hoping we would be there
• 2:29
  last this week. I don't think we will be.
• 2:31
  So if we are not, please subscribe, even if you won't
• 2:34
  even watch it on YouTube. Just subscribe and sign up to
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• 2:43
  Internet that you needed to know and also join our Geneva group,
• 2:46
  which is also called infinite scroll, where you can chat with
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  other people who are obsessed with Internet culture and
• 2:51
  creator drama in tea and you can chat with me.
• 2:54
  All right, I just have one review that I wanted to read.
• 2:57
  Our YouTube channel has been like popping off and you guys
• 2:59
  have been leaving the nicest comments ever.
• 3:01
  So I can't always pick YouTube comments 'cause sometimes
• 3:04
  there's just too many, which is just a good problem to have.
• 3:07
  But I did get a review on Apple this week and it's from the US.
• 3:12
  It's from Anna Kristina and she writes so interesting and
• 3:15
  timely. I love this podcast so much.
• 3:17
  Lauren's attention to detail is unmatched.
• 3:19
  Love how this podcast covers chronically online stories but
• 3:23
  also dives into the bigger impact of Internet trends on
• 3:25
  society. My calm major brain eats it up.
• 3:28
  Thank you. ASMR, unlike popular genres like
• 3:37
  story time or makeup tutorials, did not originate on YouTube.
• 3:41
  Its roots can be traced back to a series of message boards on a
• 3:44
  website called Steady Health and different community based
• 3:47
  groups. In 2009, a user named OK
• 3:50
  Whatever 51838 posted a message titled Weird Sensation Feels
• 3:55
  good. They described a feeling that
• 3:57
  they had experienced throughout their life and sought
• 4:00
  explanations from other Internet users, the post read.
• 4:03
  I get this sensation sometimes. There's no real trigger for it,
• 4:06
  it just happens randomly. It's been happening since I was
• 4:09
  a kid and I'm 21 now. I'll just be sitting or doing
• 4:11
  whatever and it happens. It's like in my head and all
• 4:15
  over my body. What is it?
• 4:16
  I'm not complaining because I love it, but I'm just wondering
• 4:19
  what it might be. Help.
• 4:21
  While users didn't know what exactly this sensation was, many
• 4:25
  people like Jennifer Allen resonated with such questions.
• 4:29
  One username being 487 even wrote.
• 4:32
  I think I know what you may be talking about.
• 4:34
  The only way I can describe it is like a silvery sparkle
• 4:37
  through my head and brain, almost like a sort of head
• 4:40
  orgasm, but there is nothing sexual about it.
• 4:43
  Soon a post popped up with the headline Weird sensation Feels
• 4:47
  Good Part 2. In it, users started sharing
• 4:50
  different triggers, from watching someone draw a picture
• 4:53
  to people looking for something in their bags, hearing them
• 4:55
  rustle around in it. In an interview with Jamie
• 4:58
  Lauren Keels for The New York Times Times Magazine, Jennifer
• 5:01
  Allen reflects on the conversation and reactions at
• 5:04
  the time. Quote, people have been told
• 5:06
  they were on drugs or that they had lice, things like that.
• 5:09
  And then there was the factor of people calling it a brain orgasm
• 5:12
  and it's sounding like some sort of erotic fetish kind of thing.
• 5:15
  With this, users across the Internet set out to establish a
• 5:18
  name for the sensation, with Jennifer eventually coining the
• 5:21
  term that would catch on autonomous sensory Meridian
• 5:25
  response, or ASMR, as Keels explains.
• 5:28
  Quote she started with autonomous because it was a
• 5:31
  feeling from within. Sensory was self-explanatory.
• 5:34
  Meridian worked triple duty suggesting peak but also orgasm
• 5:38
  and the energy pathways of traditional Chinese medicine.
• 5:41
  Response was just to say that it was not a constant state, it
• 5:44
  happened in reaction to a set of stimuli like whispering, chewing
• 5:48
  gum and tapping. And with this, the ASMR
• 5:50
  community was officially born. Group slowly started popping up
• 5:54
  across social media, with Jennifer starting a Facebook
• 5:57
  group for other ASMR lovers in February 2010 and the R/ASMR
• 6:01
  subreddit launching a year later.
• 6:03
  However, one early community group predating the widespread
• 6:07
  use of the term ASMR was the Society of Sensationalists on
• 6:11
  Yahoo Groups. This was the late 2000s, after
• 6:14
  all. According to a Vice article from
• 6:16
  2012, the group had a vague manifesto setting out to learn
• 6:20
  what exactly causes the sensation.
• 6:22
  Soon, the Unnamed Feeling blog by Andrew Macmurras launched a
• 6:26
  centralized space for users to seek out answers to their
• 6:29
  questions about the sensation. Across these community groups,
• 6:32
  users started discussing why they enjoyed the phenomenon,
• 6:35
  with some noting that the soft whispers are comforting and
• 6:38
  satisfying and others saying that it helps them get to sleep.
• 6:41
  Quote ASMR, supposed to create a feeling of hyper intimacy,
• 6:45
  creating physical sensations in the viewer that the Internet
• 6:48
  doesn't generally engender. Amal Rajan writes for the BBC
• 6:52
  back in 2019. Soon, users started sharing
• 6:55
  their favorite videos and some even started making them.
• 6:58
  One of the earliest examples of these these videos was posted to
• 7:01
  the Whispering Life ASMR YouTube channel titled Whisper One
• 7:05
  Hello. Uploaded on March 27th, 2009,
• 7:08
  the video featured a blank screen and a woman explaining
• 7:11
  her love of hearing people whisper.
• 7:13
  She mentioned her difficulty in finding such content online.
• 7:16
  I. Absolutely love listening to
• 7:20
  people whisper. I couldn't really find any
• 7:22
  videos on YouTube of people whispering so I thought I'd make
• 7:26
  a channel of whispering so all you whisper of us out there can
• 7:30
  listen to me if you like. While Whispering Life ASMR aims
• 7:35
  to fill a gap, the digital space would soon be overflowing with
• 7:38
  Whisper videos and of course, the even more niche and
• 7:42
  satisfying tingly types of ASMR content that was yet to come.
• 7:46
  Before ASMR expanded to include anything and everything from
• 7:49
  role plays to slime videos, this side of the Internet was known
• 7:53
  as the Whisper Community. As the name suggests, the most
• 7:56
  iconic creators special specialized and whisper videos.
• 8:00
  Now, there have been several waves of ASMR creators in the
• 8:03
  early days. Some intentionally used ASMR
• 8:06
  triggers like whispering and certain sounds, while others
• 8:09
  didn't. The latter tended to make
• 8:10
  content that was relaxing to watch, but not specifically
• 8:14
  ASMR. Some of the early ASMR artists, even though they
• 8:17
  wouldn't have identified themselves as such at the time,
• 8:20
  emerged around the same time as Whispering Life ASMR in 2009 and
• 8:24
  2010. After trawling through the
• 8:27
  R/ASMR subreddit, among the most popular early YouTube channels
• 8:31
  were the Whispering Voice, Whisper Crystal, and Kiwi
• 8:34
  Whispers. These channels tended to post
• 8:36
  videos featuring aesthetic backgrounds while whispering
• 8:39
  over these images. Ultimately, this type of content
• 8:42
  helped shape the whisper community and the relaxation
• 8:44
  niche on YouTube, fostering communities and culty followings
• 8:48
  around ASMR. One popular ASMR creator who emerged during this
• 8:52
  era and was my first introduction to ASMR was Lilium
• 8:55
  Kendidum, 27. Also known as the One Lilium
• 8:59
  ASMR. While her current channel dates back to 2012, according to
• 9:03
  Reddit users, she did have an earlier channel that hosted some
• 9:06
  ASMR content alongside other content.
• 9:09
  Since then, however, Lilium has left YouTube, with the last
• 9:12
  video on her channel being posted four years ago.
• 9:15
  After the term ASMR was coined in 2010, more creators started
• 9:19
  popping up and identifying with the label.
• 9:21
  One such example is Gentle Whispering, an influencer who
• 9:25
  has solidified herself in the early ASMR Hall of Fame and
• 9:28
  continues to make content today. Gentle Whispering, whose real
• 9:31
  name is Maria, started posting on YouTube in February 2011,
• 9:35
  recording herself as she flicked through a journal and moved
• 9:38
  around seashells. A 2014 feature by the Washington
• 9:41
  Post noted that Maria deleted the initial video after it only
• 9:45
  quote logged just two views in one month.
• 9:48
  Quote. A few months later, she tried
• 9:49
  again. This time, there were a few
• 9:52
  encouraging comments. She kept at it, and by the end
• 9:54
  of the year, she had 30,000 subscribers, the piece writes.
• 9:59
  Now, at the time of recording, Maria currently has over
• 10:02
  2,000,000 subscribers. Her early videos were similar to
• 10:05
  those of her peers, featuring simple visuals and soft whispers
• 10:09
  in both Russian and English. However, she was among the first
• 10:12
  to embrace the ASMR term, using it in the title of her video in
• 10:16
  June 2011. ASMR Have you came out of your
• 10:19
  closet yet? And Chewing gum?
• 10:21
  Gentle Whispering has explored various ASMR subgenres as she
• 10:24
  continues to post videos. Her content ranges from playing
• 10:28
  as a hairdresser or wedding consultant to sharing beauty
• 10:31
  tips in an ASMR style. She is extremely iconic among
• 10:34
  the ASMR community, so much so that one Reddit user even
• 10:38
  described her as the matriarch of the genre.
• 10:41
  Now, the patriarch of the ASMR genre also emerged during this
• 10:45
  era, with many considering Massage ASMR to hold this title.
• 10:49
  Massage ASMR, whose real name is Dimitri, is an ASMR creator
• 10:53
  based in Gold Coast, Australia. Unlike other ASMR creators,
• 10:56
  Dimitri started making massage videos and then incorporated
• 10:59
  ASMR into his content after starting his channel in December
• 11:03
  2012. He has continued to create
• 11:05
  videos over the years, with his most recent upload being six
• 11:08
  months ago. Alongside gentle whispering and
• 11:10
  massage ASMR. Another popular creator from this era was Veni
• 11:14
  Vidi Vloups, who started her channel in 2011.
• 11:17
  Despite not posting a video in nine years, she remains beloved
• 11:22
  as an OGASMR creator within the community.
• 11:25
  Her content ranged from whisper videos to role plays.
• 11:28
  With just 32 videos on her channel, she has accumulated
• 11:31
  over 29 million views. Other fan favorites include ASMR
• 11:35
  Requests and Heather Feather. ASMR both started their channels
• 11:39
  in 2012. However, they have since taken a
• 11:41
  step back from YouTube. Nevertheless, many of these
• 11:44
  creators paved the way for future ASM artists and the genre
• 11:48
  as a whole, especially as it transformed into one of the most
• 11:51
  popular forms of content across the Internet.
• 11:54
  Before ASMR went mainstream, many people were confused by
• 11:57
  its, and even today some remain puzzled.
• 12:01
  Early ASM artists frequently emphasized that ASMR was not a
• 12:05
  sexual sensation, which is why people like Jennifer advocated
• 12:08
  for a clinical term like ASMR instead of something like brain
• 12:12
  GASM. During the early days,
• 12:13
  scientific research on ASMR was especially limited, and many
• 12:17
  Internet users called for more studies to clarify and reduce
• 12:20
  misunderstandings about the phenomenon.
• 12:22
  Quote. The feeling isn't usually
• 12:24
  sexual, although some people are triggered by videos that appear
• 12:27
  sexual. Other people I've talked to who
• 12:29
  experience ASMR emphasized that the tingles and feelings of
• 12:32
  relaxation have nothing to do with sex.
• 12:35
  German Lopez writes for Vox in 2015.
• 12:38
  This began to change in the mid twenty 10s when Doctor Craig
• 12:41
  Richard, a Physiology professor at Shenandoah University in
• 12:45
  Virginia, became familiar with the term.
• 12:47
  After hearing about ASMR on a podcast in 2013, Doctor Richard
• 12:51
  started researching it. He collaborated with Jennifer
• 12:54
  Allen and Carissa Burnett, a community member, to conduct an
• 12:58
  formal survey to understand ASMR better.
• 13:00
  They received over 25,000 responses, highlighting the
• 13:04
  growing influence of this Internet niche.
• 13:06
  Doctor Richard also founded ASMR University, an online archive
• 13:11
  that remains a valuable resource for ASMR research.
• 13:14
  Quote Still, scientific understanding has moved slowly.
• 13:17
  Keels ads for the New York Times Magazine.
• 13:20
  Funding for ASMR research is hard to justify, and the diverse
• 13:23
  nature of ASMR triggers can lead to noisy data.
• 13:26
  Nevertheless, outcomes have suggested in very small samples
• 13:30
  that ASMR might have something to do with socially bonding
• 13:33
  affiliative behaviors known to release feel good hormones like
• 13:36
  oxytocin. Around the same time that Doctor
• 13:39
  Richard discovered ASMR, the phenomenon was gaining traction
• 13:42
  in the digital space. Google Trends data shows that by
• 13:45
  the end of 2014, interest in ASMR had reached new heights
• 13:49
  worldwide, setting the stage for its eventual surge in popularity
• 13:53
  later that decade. This growth intensified in the
• 13:56
  following year, with Google's internal data revealing that
• 13:59
  Quote ASMR grew over 200% in 2015, as noted by Meg Miller for
• 14:05
  Fast Company. Of course, the growth of ASMR
• 14:08
  can be attributed to several factors.
• 14:10
  Notably, the mid twenty 10s marked the beginning of
• 14:12
  mainstream media coverage of ASMR. In 2015, for example,
• 14:16
  articles with ASMR centric headlines started appearing,
• 14:20
  including Quote ASMR explained why millions of people are
• 14:23
  watching YouTube videos of someone whispering from Vox.
• 14:26
  Is there any money to be made in SMR from Forbes or even ASMR,
• 14:30
  the new sensation that's literally making people tingle
• 14:33
  from The Guardian? But there's also something to be
• 14:35
  said for influencers who aren't native ASMR creators that
• 14:39
  started experimenting with the niche.
• 14:41
  When these creators dove into ASMR, they introduced the genre
• 14:45
  to new audiences and expanded its reach.
• 14:47
  When it comes to ASMR specifically, Trisha Paytas is
• 14:51
  one such example, and I don't know if I can ever go an entire
• 14:55
  episode without talking about Tricia Paytas.
• 14:57
  So as we all know, Tricia has tried a lot of different types
• 15:01
  of content over the years, one of them being ASMR. She started
• 15:05
  making ASMR content on her main channel, Blonde Sun Doll for MJ
• 15:08
  in 2015. She uploaded her first attempt
• 15:11
  at ASMR on June 8th, a video titled ASMR Jewelry Collection.
• 15:16
  I've been doing some research because so many people were
• 15:18
  telling me that I was one of their favorite ASMR artists and
• 15:23
  I didn't even know it. Yeah.
• 15:24
  And I thought I would do some videos for those who do enjoy
• 15:27
  these kind of videos. I know they're a little
• 15:28
  different than my normal. Videos.
• 15:30
  In this video, she shows the viewer her jewelry collection,
• 15:33
  pulling out different pieces from a bedazzled jewelry box
• 15:36
  while explaining each piece. Trisha's first foray into ASMR
• 15:40
  was very well received, with many ASMR enthusiasts leaving
• 15:43
  comments expressing their excitement about her new
• 15:46
  content. Quote Yes my favorite regular
• 15:49
  YouTube now making ASMR videos so happy. 1 user wrote another
• 15:53
  wrote Oh my God I'm so happy about this your voice is so
• 15:56
  lovely. For ASMR you should definitely
• 15:58
  start exploring different triggers such as crinkling,
• 16:00
  packaging, tapping surfaces, whispering, and even role play
• 16:04
  for others. This video was their
• 16:06
  introduction to the world of ASMR. Quote I had no idea what
• 16:09
  ASMR was and was just watching this for the jewelry collection
• 16:13
  but I started getting tingles on the top of my head and feeling
• 16:15
  really nice and when I saw the comments I was amazed at how
• 16:19
  this is actually a thing. Tricia make more of this because
• 16:21
  I had no idea what this was supposed to be and it worked on
• 16:24
  me. Another viewer shared.
• 16:26
  Tricia went on to create a whole playlist of ASMR videos and
• 16:30
  eventually launched a dedicated ASMR channel known as Tricia
• 16:33
  Paytas ASMR. Although she posted her first ASMR video in 2009,
• 16:37
  she only started the channel a decade later in 2019.
• 16:41
  Since then, the channel has amassed over 103 million views
• 16:45
  and has more than 570,000 subscribers.
• 16:48
  Her earlier ASMR SMR content featured no talking content
• 16:51
  where she ate everything from a head of lettuce to creamy
• 16:54
  fettuccine with Tricia. Known for her iconic mukbangs,
• 16:58
  this content didn't feel too foreign from her other videos.
• 17:01
  While she still makes ASMR videos, she has shifted away
• 17:04
  from eating ASMR and now focuses on talking to the camera in
• 17:08
  various characters or sharing halls and unboxings in an ASMR
• 17:12
  style. For instance, the most recent
• 17:14
  video on her channel was posted on July 15th where Tricia did a
• 17:17
  Bridgerton ASMR role play. With a mainstream creator like
• 17:20
  Tricia Paytas jumping on board, it was only a matter of time
• 17:23
  before other creators tried their hand at ASMR. However,
• 17:27
  ASMR only really began to gain traction among other creators in
• 17:30
  the late twenty 10s. Through 2018 and 2019, we
• 17:34
  witnessed the likes of Tana Mojo, Sofia Nygaard, and Mia
• 17:37
  Maples give ASMR a go, with each of these videos accumulating
• 17:41
  millions of views. In Sofia's video, she offers an
• 17:44
  interesting reason for ASMR's entry into the mainstream.
• 17:48
  Now, one of my theories as to why ASMR has become more
• 17:51
  mainstream recently is the huge popularity of oddly satisfying
• 17:56
  videos like slime mixing, kinetic sand cutting, and just
• 18:00
  like generally squishing stuff. And although these videos are
• 18:05
  not all necessarily ASMR, they are kind of like a gateway ASMR.
• 18:11
  The term oddly satisfying originated on Reddit and is used
• 18:15
  to describe an inexplicably pleasing quality to certain
• 18:18
  videos or images. Quote defining the oddly
• 18:21
  satisfying is akin to throwing a scrunched up ball of paper and
• 18:24
  getting it smack bang in the trash can the first time around,
• 18:28
  and then watching it as a compilation over and over and
• 18:31
  over again, writes Sabrina Farmer.
• 18:33
  Easy for Although the term has been around for a while, these
• 18:37
  videos started picking up steam around 2018, especially as slime
• 18:41
  videos became super popular. According to Google, slime was
• 18:44
  in fact the biggest DIY trend of 2017.
• 18:47
  Farmer Razi ultimately makes a similar point to Sophia, noting
• 18:51
  that oddly satisfying content is related to ASMR, especially
• 18:55
  considering how these videos have helped viewers relax.
• 18:58
  Quote But most interesting is that young digitally equipped
• 19:01
  people are watching these videos before they go to bed to help
• 19:04
  them sleep. Because of this, there have been
• 19:06
  numerous reports that watching videos of slime and other things
• 19:09
  under the oddly satisfying umbrella help make people feel
• 19:13
  relaxed and calm, which has led to some conjecture as to whether
• 19:16
  the oddly satisfying is in fact another branch of ASMR. As ASMR
• 19:21
  gained traction across the digital space in the late twenty
• 19:24
  10s, it also started receiving more mainstream attention.
• 19:27
  W Magazine, for instance, launched a celebrity ASMR series
• 19:31
  online where celebrities quote experiment with ASMR to trigger
• 19:34
  tingles and relaxation while you the viewer learn more about
• 19:38
  these high profile people. The earliest video in the series
• 19:41
  featured Cara Delevingne and was posted on July 28th, 2016.
• 19:46
  Since then, they have tapped celebrities from Paris Hilton to
• 19:49
  Troy Savant. The most popular video in this
• 19:51
  series is Cardi BS episode from 2018 which has amassed over 61
• 19:56
  million views. Obviously, ASMR has also been
• 20:00
  featured in other parts of mainstream pop culture in 2018,
• 20:03
  for example. Jimmy Kimmel included a segment
• 20:06
  on his show where kids teach Jimmy Kimmel about ASMR A year
• 20:09
  later, Sabrina Carpenter even used ASMR to promote one of her
• 20:13
  songs from singular act two in my bed.
• 20:16
  While ASMR has undeniably entered the mainstream, it
• 20:19
  remains a predominantly digital phenomenon.
• 20:21
  According to a 2022 article from ASMR university, there are
• 20:25
  approximately. Quote 500,000 ASMR channels,
• 20:29
  500,000 ASM artists and 25,000,000 ASMR videos on on
• 20:34
  YouTube. Some of the most popular ASM
• 20:36
  artists garner millions of views on YouTube, with some of the
• 20:40
  most active creators being gibby, ASMRASMR, glow, and of
• 20:44
  course gentle whispering. TikTok has only accelerated the
• 20:48
  reach of many ASM artists and the genre as a whole.
• 20:51
  By the nature of TikTok, the for you page has introduced many of
• 20:54
  us to different facets of Internet culture and spawned its
• 20:57
  own class of creators. While ASMR has extended beyond
• 21:01
  just auditory content, as previously mentioned, many
• 21:03
  Internet culture pundits consider oddly satisfying videos
• 21:06
  a part of ASMR. TikTok has embraced various ASMR genres. 1
• 21:11
  popular example is the bottle smashing trend that took over
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  TikTok a couple of years ago. For those unfamiliar, millions
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  of TikTok users started engaging with viral videos where bottles
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  and jars filled with food and drink were rolled down steps
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  before smashing quote. Some of these viewers seem to be
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  watching the videos for the autonomous sensory Meridian
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  response that the videos evoke, as many videos are uploaded
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  accompanied by the hashtag ASMR Lecturer and cognitive
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  neuroscience Helen Niddle writes for The Conversation.
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  With new ASMR trends to jump on, TikTok has also elevated smaller
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  ASMR creators. One such example is Southern
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  ASMR Sounds, whose real name is Mary.
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  Mary has been posting on YouTube since 2015, but recently a
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  TikTok creator named Julieta ASMR clipped content from Mary's
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  YouTube and posted it to her over 1,000,000 followers.
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  While Julieta creates her own ASMR content, she also freaks
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  frequently shares content from other ASM artists, She wrote
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  above the video. Quote Who knew watching a
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  southern lady organize shelves at the Dollar Tree could make me
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  so relaxed? This video of Mary garnered over
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  5.9 million views. Reviewers flooded to the
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  comments section praising the Tik Toker for featuring Mary and
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  expressing that she deserves more recognition.
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  Quote TikTok finally discovered Mary slash southern ASMR. I've
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  been waiting for this moment, she is amazing. 1 user wrote
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  Another wrote. I love southern ASMR all should
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  check out her videos, she's got quite a good variety.
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  But what happens to ASM artists when they enter the digital
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  mainstream? Interestingly, some female ASM
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  artists have monetized their audience by pivoting into not
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  safe for work content. As we have established, ASMR is
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  not inherently sexual, but it does aim to create a hyper
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  intimate environment, one that many people enjoy because it
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  evokes feelings of being cared for.
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  Of course this intimacy doesn't have to be sexual, but some
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  people find the genre soft spoken role plays, close up
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  whispers and gentle movements arousing.
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  Some critics have even likened ASMR to micro dosing soft core
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  porn. When people, often men, find
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  themselves aroused by this kind of content, they are not subtle
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  about it. This in turn has LED some famous
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  female ASMR artists to head down the only fans route.
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  Gwen Swinarton, known as Gwen Gwizz and Angelica ASMR are two
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  interesting examples. We've done a whole deep dive
• 23:35
  into Gwen, so feel free to head to that episode if you want the
• 23:38
  whole story. But to make a Long story short,
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  Gwen joined YouTube in 2011 and later launched her channel Gwen
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  Gwiz, where she found success as an ASMR creator.
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  At the time, she was vegan, openly identified as queer, and
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  posted content that was pro feminism and pro body
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  positivity. From the start of her ASMR
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  channel, Gwen was sexualized by a large portion of her audience.
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  This subset of her fan base frequently left comments about
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  how hot she was and commented time stamps when Gwen gave a
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  sexy smirk or accidentally showed cleavage so other viewers
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  could easily access these moments.
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  This behavior from her audience came to a head in 2019 when
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  Gwen's privacy was violated by an unknown source who leaked her
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  nude photos. This opened her up to an
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  onslaught of requests from viewers saying they would pay
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  for more sexually explicit content from her.
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  According to an interview with Refinery 29, these requests
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  piqued Gwen's interest. She began responding to these
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  comments and launched an Only Fans in July 2020.
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  But last year, concerns emerged that Gwen had fallen down the
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  crunchy to alt right pipeline. After moving to the suburbs, she
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  adopted crunchy interests like homesteading and also began
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  preaching increasingly conspiratorial beliefs.
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  She has since launched a TikTok account, Gwen the Milk Maid,
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  where she tends to post trad lifestyle content.
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  In December last year, she shared a testimony explaining
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  how God and Christianity stopped Only Fans from ruining her life.
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  While she has taken a step back from Only Fans, she has returned
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  to ASMR, posting her first video in over a year on July 18th.
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  In it, she updated her followers about her life and shared that
• 25:13
  she recently got married. Angelica ASMR, another popular
• 25:17
  creator in the community, has seemingly followed suit.
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  In June last year, Angelica started spouting conservative
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  political views across her social media, a stark departure
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  from her previously leftist beliefs.
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  Angelica created her channel in 2015 and began posting ASMR
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  content the following year. She gained recognition for her
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  unconventional ASMR role plays where she pretended to be an
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  array of characters, including a plastic surgeon and an
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  epidemiologist. However, the video that
• 25:44
  catapulted her to viral fame within the ASMR community was
• 25:48
  when she role played as a World War Two nurse in November 2016,
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  much like when Angelica started in Only Fans and was active on
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  the platform until May of last year.
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  After deciding to stop posting explicit content, she returned
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  to her second channel, Angelica's Grass, with a video
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  titled Only Fans Hurts Young Girls.
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  She began posting by listing the types of people who shouldn't
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  start an Only Fans, claiming that it can be dangerous for
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  anyone under 23 or people with people pleasing habits, anyone
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  that has mental illness, or someone who is very chaotic.
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  Angelica also noted that celebrities like Cardi B have
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  quote, brainwashed many young girls into thinking this
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  lifestyle is normal. Angelica explained that Only
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  Fans money can sometimes lead women to gaslight themselves and
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  push their boundaries in order to meet quote demands and
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  desires of grown men who have perverted imaginations.
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  Many Internet users praised Angelica's analysis of Only
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  Fans, appreciative that she pointed out some nuances that
• 26:44
  are often overlooked in discussions about sex work.
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  These viewers noted that while Only Fans creators may initially
• 26:50
  start to make such content to reclaim their sexuality, they
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  still operate within patriarchal and capitalist power structures
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  that remain exploitative and alienating.
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  However, viewers grew concerned when Angelica began sharing some
• 27:03
  of her other beliefs, particularly after she detailed
• 27:06
  her transition from anarcho communist to Catholic.
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  After exploring her newfound commitment to Christianity with
• 27:12
  her audience, Angelica continue to detail her problems with
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  radical feminism and leftist ideology on her YouTube,
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  Instagram, and TikTok. She soon faced backlash, with
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  many social media users claiming that her commentary was riddled
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  with homophobia. Since then, her content and
• 27:28
  subsequent apology has been deleted.
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  While some of Angelica's followers were happy that she
• 27:33
  found some comfort and Christianity, many were worried
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  by the sudden and drastic nature of this change.
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  With this in mind, some Internet users have speculated that
• 27:42
  Angelica's reaction was some sort of traumatic response to
• 27:45
  her sex work. At the time of recording,
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  Angelica continues to post daily ASMR content on her second
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  channel. Angelica's Grasp.
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  While Gwen and Angelica are extreme examples, there could be
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  an argument made that as the genre becomes increasingly more
• 27:59
  mainstream and thus garners a significantly bigger audience,
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  there is more opportunity opportunity for female ASM
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  artists to be sexualized and exploited by people who aren't
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  really there for ASMR. So that brings us to now.
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  In 2024, ASMR is one of the most popular genres of content on
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  YouTube. As a result of this popularity,
• 28:20
  ASMR content has become over saturated and highly produced
• 28:24
  over the years. To compete with the thousands of
• 28:26
  other ASMR artists online, creators fitted out their
• 28:29
  equipment with expensive binaural microphones, creative
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  set designs and state of VR cameras.
• 28:35
  This is a stark departure from the whisper community, who for
• 28:38
  the most part were filming on 1st generation smartphones in
• 28:41
  their bedrooms. This has bred 2 new subgenres of
• 28:45
  ASMR. Unintentional ASMR where users seek out videos of people
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  who give them an ASMR sensation but aren't trying to make ASMR
• 28:53
  content really, and Lofi ASMR, where a creator is filming an
• 28:57
  old school style video, usually without a microphone and on
• 29:00
  their smartphone. While ASMR trends and content
• 29:03
  styles, this is a genre that is here to stay.
• 29:07
  One of the most positive corners of the Internet, the ASMR
• 29:10
  community helps millions of people through some of their
• 29:13
  most difficult times, helping us stay calm, find moments of
• 29:17
  relaxation, and lulling us to sleep every night, usually
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  through the whispered tones that started it all.
• 29:24
  Infinite Scroll is a podcast produced, presented and Co
• 29:27
  written by me, Lauren Meissner First Centennial World.
• 29:30
  This episode was researched and written by Annabelle and David
• 29:33
  and edited by Danny Fennick. Thank you guys so much for
• 29:36
  listening. I love you guys and I will talk
• 29:38
  to you next week. Bye.