With a world full of torment and political drama, nowadays people are doing anything to try to relax or feel satisfied. The past few years on YouTube and social media in general have seen this new trend of relaxation. No, I don’t mean a new fad of massage chairs, but I mean ASMR. I mean with many problems in the US and the outside world; It is to no surprise why people are having a hard time to relax. The people’s craving for satisfaction has led to this new craze.

To start off, ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and is defined as a “calming, pleasurable feeling often accompanied by a tingling sensation” by the Huffington Post. ASMR videos range from tapping, whispering, slow movements, eating, etc. In the YouTube community, ASMR has given rise to many creators who want to share their love for relaxation. From slime videos to eating McDonald’s, ASMR videos are now one of the most watched videos on YouTube and Instagram. This trend has really created a new side of social media as a whole. But the question still rises, what’s really with ASMR?

Well for starters, students at YLHS, like most average teenagers on the internet, have haters and lovers of the fad. Dylan Shube (9) loves watching ASMR and is something that helps him sleep and is an escape from all the stress of today’s politics. On the other hand, Jacob Viverous (11) believes that “there are very few things that relax [him]; ASMR only works sometimes.” Only the sound of cement being chipped away is his favorite trigger, when ASMR does work for him.

To me, ASMR is quite interesting and kind of funny because who would think that whispering and soothing sounds would become such a trend. I actually understand why people love it so much due to the fact that everyday objects, foods, or sounds are something to relate to. I think that ASMR is also helpful for people with insomnia or anxiety, because of its affect on people’s minds.

Because ASMR has been in the limelight longer than usual trends on social media, it is safe to say that the genre of entertainment is not going away anytime soon. ASMR is really about finding the inner peace people these days want to feel. That escape for people to go to is important for life and sanity, for many it is prayer or television, and now it could be ASMR.