MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

A quiet corner of YouTube is devoted to a genre of video called ASMR. ASMR (short for Auto Sensory Meridian Response) is a sensation of relaxation and comfort only certain people experience, evoked through triggers such as personal attention, soft tapping on hard surfaces, massage, hand movements, whispering and soft speaking. ASMRtists , people who create ASMR videos to create “tingles” in their viewers, have loyal followings of subscribers, some in the millions, and many live off of the money they make from YouTube monetizing their videos with ads. ASMR has been covered in popular media, and limited scholarship, as both an oddity and a phenomenon. ASMR in itself is a sensation worth discussing for its furtive and fascinating place in popular internet culture. For my presentation, I would like to discuss the prominent contingency of children who create ASMR videos on YouTube. These young ASMRtists range from toddler age to teenage, and are diverse in gender and race. Some accounts are facilitated by an adult, while others appear to be unsupervised or even a secret endeavor. Some have thousands of subscribers, both adult and children. The presence of kid ASMR stars is persistent and notable especially because, for people who experience ASMR, children’s voices and presence can be an especially relaxing “trigger.” For this project, I will discuss child ASMRtists in terms of the ways they are engaging in sociodramatic play, and how this is situated within the realm of digital play and childhoods online. Much discussion about kids online centers on how to keep children away from harmful content. In the context of this performative phenomenon, I would like to explore child ASMRtists as a potentially positive space for creative play, and an interesting landscape for both adult and children to consume the creations of kid ASMRtists.