Does all A.S.M.R. NOW?

Videos that tickle the so-called autonomous sensory meridian response once belonged to a specific corner of the Internet. Now they are practically everywhere.

A person, usually a woman, speaks quietly into a microphone. She pays special attention to you. Maybe she asks you about your day, or plays the role of a beautician, a doctor, or your best friend at a sleepover. Maybe she's about to give you a facial. Or examine your eyes with a light and magnifying glass. Or just listen to you talk.

There are many mouth sounds, for lack of a better description. The woman whispers and clicks her tongue, while speaking with overly stressed consonants and elongated vowels. From time to time, she taps her nails on the microphone. Or drags them along the teeth of a comb. Or crumple up a piece of cellophane. When she opens the jar containing the mud mask she is about to apply to your cheeks, she twists the lid open and closed, open and closed, slowly and strategically into the microphone .

These effects once belonged to a niche online content known as A.S.M.R., short for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, the name for the pleasant, tingling sensation that viewers can experience while watching videos with these sounds. And it was thought to be an acquired taste, even though it became very popular online.

But some of the central elements of A.S.M.R. the videos slowly crept into more mainstream content. Quickly scroll through TikTok or Instagram Reels, and you probably won't get very far without encountering someone riffing on the genre.

Videos of chefs dipping an onion on the counter only to have the dull sound of the onion — plop! — and, through the magic of editing, disperse into a perfectly diced pile. They hit a pan with hot oil and — sssss — they sizzle. A video of a fashion influencer getting dressed might focus on the sound of a zipper being pulled or the percussive sounds of a row of snaps. The gentle sound of flowing water accompanies a video of someone dredging a swimming pool. C3 Laundry Services, a cleaning company in Accra, Ghana, began attracting viral attention a few years ago after its owner began posting videos scraping soapy water from dirty carpets.

The sounds are subdued, never alarming. Just enough to hold the viewer's attention.

"The only thing these videos tend to have in common is transformation," said Craig Richard, professor of biopharmaceutical sciences at Shenandoah University and the author of the book "Brain Tingles."

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