What is it about watching people's fingers go in and out of clumps of slime to make indentations
- or stretching out some slime across a kitchen counter and then cutting it up into little
pieces - or squeezing globs of slime in their hands that makes it such a wholesome and satisfying
life-enhancing experience.
We don't know why exactly slime videos are so satisfying and can't be explained on any
scientific or psychological level, but they just are!
They're the most satisfying things in the world!
People buy slime now, just to do those things to it.
Slime sales have gone through the roof, thanks to these videos.
If you love slime videos as much as we do, then check out these 10 awesome ones from
across the aether of the internet!
Gooey and soothing
Why are slime videos so popular and satisfying?
It's a really tricky question with no definitive answer (mainly because scientists and psychologists
have much more important things to be researching), but Instagrammers and social media experts
and general slime fans have their theories.
@freshmilhk, an Instagram user with a penchant for slime videos, believes that the internet's
obsession with slime has something to do with how relaxed it makes you feel when you watch
people poking holes in clumps of slime.
It's a distressing thing.
@freshmilhk says, "They're so gooey and soothing.
I saw one on Tumblr that was reposted by a store on Instagram in Thailand.
I was so intrigued about its gooey texture that I had the urge to look for more.
I never thought this would become such a big thing.
My favorite is the clear colored slime with little objects inside of them, like mini watermelon
slices!"
It's not enough for a slime video to simply be a video clip of a camera pointed at some
slime.
That would be no good.
It's all in the actions “ - the pokes, the prods, the cuts, the gloops.
That's what people really want to see in a
slime video.
A lovely slice of ASMR
Not many people realize this, but watching slime videos is actually therapeutic.
The sounds trigger a seriously positive response in your brain.
Everyone should be watching these things!
Are you feeling stressed out?
Watch a slime video.
Are you feeling unhappy?
Watch a slime video.
Are you feeling frustrated?
Watch a slime video.
Seriously, it'll cheer you up and that has been scientifically proven.
Have you ever wondered why the sounds you hear in slime videos are so unbelievably satisfying
and soothing to the ears?
The crunching of a knife cutting through it or the putty sounds of people's fingers prodding
into it.
Well, there is a very specific psychological reason for that.
According to the leading slime experts, a mental response in your brain called ASMR
(Auto Sensory Meridian Response) is triggered when you hear slime noises in a slime video.
Psychologists use ASMR to explain the little tingles you feel on your body when your mind
is all happy and fuzzy and everything's great and your entire being becomes engulfed in
an overwhelming sense of intense relaxation.
Yeah, well, that's what happens when you watch slime videos, so it's like therapy “ - but
free, and with no long waiting lists to go through.
Poker face
The official term used by Instagram users for the ones who post videos of slime - and
activities relating to that slime - is "slimers."
Slimer, of course, is one of the secondary villains from a certain supernatural comedy
franchise about guys who bust ghosts for a living, but the word has taken on a different
meaning as the millennial generation has come in with their YouTube and their social media
and their Instagram.
Now, a slimer is a person who posts videos of slime and themselves doing things to that
slime, whether that's cutting it up with a knife or jabbing their fingers into it or
stretching it out across the kitchen counter or whatever else these slimers can think to
do with their slime.
One of the most satisfying things in slime videos is when the slimer takes the slime
out of its bowl or container very slowly, and eventually, the whole clump of slime pops
out without a trace, and it is all removed perfectly with no straggly bits or chunks
that got stuck to the bottom.
For organized, anal retentive, Type A personality people, this is the most incredible and awe-inspiring
sight in the whole, entire world.
I can't believe it's not butter...slime
There's a whole bunch of different types of slime.
Slime is not restricted to the gloopy green stuff from countless ghost stories and the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.
It's a much more flexible (pardon the pun) term now, as slimers have cultivated a ton
of different styles and recipes to use for their videos, and they've opened our minds
up to whole new worlds of slime.
For starters, who knew that slime could have so many textures?
It can be jiggly, it can be gloopy, it can be fluffy, it can be creamy, it can be crunchy
- heck, it can even be bubblegummy!
There's something known as "butter slime," which is a weird hybrid of the textures of
both butter and slime.
You mix the slime in a bowl with clay and what comes out is a thick, creamy, beautifully
buttery kind of slime.
This type of slime was originally invented by the Instagram user @slime_og, and according
to the stats and figures posted by social media platforms based on how popular the topics
discussed on them are, butter slime is the most popular and highest trending slime ever!
It's not the only new type of slime, but hey, it is the most popular one.
Starbucks slime
Pretty much every beverage of all time has been given a slimy makeover in the past couple
of years, as the popularity of slime on social media has grown exponentially.
Now, Starbucks drinks and smoothies and blended strawberry lemonade and frozen blueberries
all have been given the slime treatment.
These drinks and beverages and snacks have all been replicated and recreated in the form
of slime.
Slimers get really creative in this department.
They're always on the lookout for new things on the menu of Starbucks or in their refrigerator
that they can turn into slimes and then post videos of it on YouTube and Instagram.
This technique was pioneered by the revolutionary Instagrammer @kickassslimes.
We talked earlier about the ASMR (the response in your brain that makes you feel all warm
and fuzzy and relaxed, which explains why it’s so satisfying to you watch slime videos),
and apparently, this response is the greatest when the slime is crunchy.
The crunchier it is, the better the feeling of the ASMR!
So, get out there and check out the crunchiest slime videos you can find.
Brain orgasm
The fact that people feel pleasure from watching slime videos that can't really be explained
has been a point of contention for a lot of people, who can't decide whether they find
it awfully disturbing or infectiously affable.
One Instagram user commented on a particularly noisy video of a finger poking into some crunchy
slime, "I can't decide whether this sound is making me want to kill myself or being
my only reason to live."
That's pretty much how we all feel when we struggle to wrap our heads around the sensation
that we feel when we watch people prod slime in a bowl and spread it out across a table
top.
One common description of what you feel when you experience ASMR is that it is basically
a "brain orgasm."
That's a pretty apt way of putting it, to be honest.
If someone told you that when you watch slime videos and feel satisfied by it, it's called
a "brain orgasm," you wouldn't be at all surprised, because that's exactly what it is!
According to other research, the ASMR sensation is even stronger when there are things in
the slime, like little pieces of watermelon or glitter, even though these are purely aesthetic
touches.
That is weird, right?
Old people don't get it
Older generations don't exactly “get” the whole slime crazy.
They can't understand why young people like it so much!
To be fair, it is a weird trend, so if you weren't on board with it, you'd have a hard
time coming to terms with it.
Commenter Miranda Mirsec, a mother, simply can't understand why her kids like this weird
slime stuff so much.
She wrote in the comments section of an MNN article, "I was totally surprised that this
is such a big thing.
My kids are obsessed with slime.
Like making slime wasn't odd enough, now people out there are adding ingredients into balloons
just to add to the slime...and the topper...they make these beautifully colorful creations,
only to mix them all up together.
I think I'm missing the gene that understands all this, because when I think of something
to spend money on - say, feeding a starving child somewhere in this world or, paying the
water bill (I do have teenagers) - buying glue and things to make slime is sure not
one of them.
Meditation, folks!
It's free and less wasteful."
Well, that so-called missing gene is simply the genetic coding of being a younger person,
because millennials love slime.
Once upon a time in Thailand...
Slime videos have really exploded in popularity over the past few years.
It only started in about the summer of 2016, and yet the hashtag #slime is still tagged
to more than three million posts on Instagram.
Three million!
In less than two years!
That's crazy!
It is insane, how quickly things catch fire on the internet.
And add to that all of the countless tutorial videos on YouTube where they tell you how
to make various different types of slime - all the ingredients and the best methods to make
them really crunchy or slimy or gooey or creamy or however you want your slime to look and
feel.
So, where on Earth did this trend begin?
It's been spreading rapidly across the western world, but it didn't start here.
As with many other big social media trends - like those 24-hour box fort challenges that
every YouTuber has been attempting lately - the slime video craze came from the east.
Well, Thailand, to be specific.
Prim Pattanaporn, who runs the slime-heavy Instagram account SparklyGoo says "When I
started making slime, it was because I came across Thai videos where it looked really
pretty, I wanted to purchase it, only I couldn't find a vendor.
I just felt like I had to touch it."
So therapeutic
You wouldn't believe it if someone told you without any evidence to back it up, but the
act of watching slime videos online is actually a therapeutic experience, to a point.
There's been some extensive study into this area by an art therapist named Nadia Jenefsky.
She says that younger people, who have grown up with social media and advanced technologies,
need something more to get an emotional response than older people.
Older people grew up smelling the roses and looking up at the sky.
Young people have grown up with iPads and smartphones and YouTube.
She explains, "What's changing nowadays is that kids are spending more time with screens,
so they are getting an excessive amount of one type of sensory input, which is the smooth
rubbing of a finger on a screen or keyboard.
Children, in general, are getting less sensory and tactile input from playing outside and
picking up sticks or making patty cakes out of mud.
Slime has come in to take the place of those activities that we are less inclined to do
because we don't want to make a mess or can't go out in nature as much."
There you go - slime videos are therapeutic.
Slime is art
How do slimers feel about what they do?
Well, they see every pot of slime that they create and every finger hole they poke in
it and every slice of it they cut off as a work of art.
Slime obsessed Instagrammer Prim Pattanaporn of the Instagram account SparklyGoo said,
"It's definitely a form of art.
You can get creative with it.
You can change how the colors will look and how it will feel."
That is certainly a fair point.
Art is a form of creative expression that evokes an emotional response in the audience
- these videos give people brain orgasms!
Art therapist Nadia Jenefsky explains that slime videos reduce stress: "We are all more
stressed and just having something to fidget with or play within your hand is a good way
to discharge tension or stress, especially if you are stressed, because you have to sit
at a desk or on the subway.
Our high levels of stress, combined with high levels of inertia, make us want to discharge
physical energy through stress balls, slime, or coloring books...Slime is about mixing
ingredients and experimenting with different colors and supplies."
And isn't that what life is all about?
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