Digital intimacy and ambient embodied copresence in YouTube videos: construing visual and aural perspective in ASMR role play videos

Abstract

This article explores how digital intimacy is construed through ambient embodied copresence in ‘personal attention’ role play videos, a type of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) video that has become popular on YouTube. ASMR is the experience of positive sensations in response to visual and aural stimuli. Online video sharing platforms have provided a way for people who experience these ASMR sensations to watch, produce, and disseminate ASMR-invoking material. In ASMR role play videos the YouTuber constructs a conceit (e.g. a beautician visit) and uses visual and aural resources to encourage the feeling in the ambient viewers that they are there with the YouTuber experiencing the interaction. This article considers how these videos forge an immersive faux-interactional context, and invoke the visual and aural perspectives and embodiment of ambient viewers. The dataset explored is a playlist of 116 role play videos from the GentleWhispering ASMR YouTube channel, the most popular ASMR channel at the time of writing.