The Voice of Touch, 2022
(Picture: Marc Teyssier)Even if you haven’t heard of ASMR, odds on you’ve experienced something like it, either intentionally or unintentionally. Popping bubble wrap, perhaps, zithering your fingertip down the teeth of a comb, or enjoying the satisfying snip of a hairdresser’s scissors very close to your ear.
ASMR is an internet phenomenon with millions of videos and many more viewers dedicated to such sensations. The genre has its own specialist producers called ASMRtists. Some people feel a definite bodily tingle or frisson in response to stimuli such as hair being brushed or a cucumber crunched loudly, others use the usually soothing sounds to help them fall asleep, yet scientists have not yet agreed that ASMR even exists. And not everybody responds, or in the same way.
