Read chapter 1: The sound of silence
Where we ask what the world might look like if people tried to meet all their needs through a screen
Revealing Reality is a multi-award-winning insight and innovation agency.
We enjoy working on challenging projects with social purpose to inform policy, design and behaviour change, particularly when it comes to the impact of technology on our lives. Sometimes in the course of our work we spot a phenomenon that is not receiving the attention it deserves; an issue that impacts us all and should be better understood.
We have previously self-funded research exploring the impact of smartphone design on human behaviour, how live-streaming is evolving and shaping the online attention economy, and how the functionality of digital platforms shapes young people’s lives and can lead them to harm.
Recently, we have been exploring a specific genre of online video content that has been growing rapidly in popularity and appearing more frequently in the digital media diets of younger people: ASMR.
This is a multimedia report that summarises our research, analysis and thoughts on ASMR
We have spent the last few months researching the phenomenon of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), and what it might tell us. We have interviewed both people who watch and create ASMR videos, analysed thousands of ASMR videos to explore what trends emerge, and surveyed 2000 UK adults on whether they enjoy ASMR videos, and why.
ASMR is a genre of content delivered almost exclusively through video, defined by its distinct auditory and visual qualities. For that reason, we have not produced a static report but instead invested in a multi-media experience. Many ASMR videos online range from 10 minutes to 3 hours. To make them more accessible and ad-free, we have shortened them to around 30 seconds. ASMR must be seen and heard to be understood.
We highly recommend that, if you’re interested in exploring this report, you do so on a desktop, laptop, or tablet, and that you watch the short clips that accompany the text with the sound on - with headphones if you’re in public (you might thank us later).
If the video at the top of this page made you squeamish, be warned there is much more in the pages to come that might do so too. ASMR videos depict anything from hands squishing a ball of slime, to a content creator play acting a medical exam, to the animated removal of a parasite from a foot, to the far more intimate and up-close experiences you’ve just seen.
A note from Revealing Reality on the media you’ll see in this report:
We, like many, have enjoyed exploring the delights and horrors of AI generated imagery, and the possibilities it unlocks for creative communication. The illustrations you’ll see throughout this report were all created using MidJourney. We hope you’ll agree that they add to the experience.
However, we are a research organisation with a brand to think about, and revealing reality is something we take seriously. We never use AI to generate content where real life data would be better suited to help our audiences and the wider world understand the subjects we study.
AI generated content is going to become ever more seamlessly integrated into our media lives. Already in our research we observe people scrolling past an indistinguishable blend of real, filtered, and completely fabricated content on their social media feeds. This report is about what happens when digital media reflects an unadulterated vision of what we are drawn to, and maybe what we are missing. It’s often weird, and a little dystopian.
In this context, reality has never mattered more.
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Get in touch
If you have any questions or would like to talk to us about this work, feel free to email: damon.deionno@revealingreality.co.uk to speak with the research team.
+44 (0)20 7735 8040
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