I’ve mainly been editing older material of late because I had (have) developed quite a backlog of articles on an ASMR theme. It is therefore good to be writing something new for a change.
Welcome to the Procrastination Pen, which for several months now has been the home to a blog about ASMR, ASMR videos and ASMR playlists. However, I appreciate that only some people have any ASMR feelings at all. For this reason, from the outset, my emphasis has been on calming videos that anyone could use to relax and perhaps to drift off to sleep.
I have focused on ASMR videos that were designed to do something entirely different, rather than the ASMR videos produced professionally by ASMR artists. That is not to say that I may not write the odd article about such videos but I have limited experience of them as it stands (and there seem to be a vast great number to choose from).
The outcome of this endeavour has been a large playlist consisting of the videos I have reviewed so far that were worth listening to. There is also a set of playlists relating to each channel I have reviewed (if you like a particular channel).
I always include the details of the latest playlists at the end of each blog article, so if you’re not keen to read about the review process, you can scroll straight to the end and pick them up there.
The theme has tended to be about medical videos mainly because medical professionals seem to take a calm approach to their work and often therefore speak slowly and quietly, which is I believe fundamental to a good voice for ASMR.
This week an institution which we have featured before, and I have no doubt will be featuring again.
At that time, I picked up a video directly from the Stanford Medicine Channel on YouTube. This time I have come across the page in which they embed all of their videos, which is this one:
https://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/videos.html.
As we can see there is a range of videos separated logically into subject areas and all referencing a location on YouTube. However, for our purposes logical is all very well but are they any good ASMR-wise.
Choosing at random we can see that Dermatology Exam is a subject area that has just four videos, which seems a nice small number to review in a concise Blog post, so let’s see what they have to offer.
The first video is this one:
Approach to the Dermatology Exam (Stanford Medicine 25)
which is just shy of eight minutes in length.
In common with a number of professional videos this one has notes, a précis of which is:
“22 Jan 2016
From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe and diagnose any skin lesion.
The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.”
From memory of the last article the notes tend to get a bit repetitive, so I will only feature elements which might be of interest.
Bravely they are permitting comments and as expected not all of the comments are positive. There are no obvious comments from ASMR fans which given how effective ASMR fans are at finding videos is possibly not a good sign.
The video starts with the bugbear of any ASMR video devotee, the peppy start up music, applied I’m sure more through branding or marketing considerations than anything to do with quiet relaxation.
The medical professional is Dr Justin Ko, (which the automatic subtitles render as “Justin Cohen”!). Straight away we realise we are not dealing with any Dr James Gill in terms of voice but the introductory piece is relatively muted. However it gets louder, I mean a whole lot louder. In addition the background music continues and persists throughout the rest of the video. In addition the subject matter is a bit distracting.
I think this prohibits this one from becoming a member of the Procrastination Pen playlist.
Approach to Multiple Rashes (Stanford Medicine 25)
The relevant part of the notes are: “22 Jan 2016
From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.”
This is very short at a bit over four and a half minutes. Again, with the music, sigh. This time Bernice Kwong who is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology.
The video starts quietly and Bernice seems to have quite a good voice, relatively quiet and calm. However, again, the music persists throughout the video – why, why, why? This video is also not useful for us.
Approach to Nevi (Moles) – Stanford Medicine 25
At four and three quarter minutes it still isn’t a long video. The relevant notes are “22 Jan 2016
From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately describe complex and multiple skin lesions.”
Again, the comments are not at all helpful. So far, so YouTube. The start-up music remains. This time Jennifer Chen is the medical Professional; a Clinical Assistant Professor.
The start is promising, a quiet beginning but again continuous background music – how frustrating. This video is just not for us.
Diagnosing Acne vs. Rosacea (Stanford Medicine 25)
Just over three minutes so the shortest so far and featuring Jennifer Chen as in the previous video. The relevant part of the notes is: “22 Jan 2016
From our dermatology series, this video covers all the basics you need to accurately differentiate between regular acne and acne rosacea.”
The comments are nearly totally irrelevant or unhelpful but there are clues that some of the listeners are ASMR fans. mostly, it turns out, frustrated ASMR fans due to the background music.
So we know what is coming sadly. Unfortunately, Dermatology is a strike-out ASMR wise despite some great presenters. The decision to have music throughout is really very distracting.
However, all is not lost – there are those other videos to draw on, of course.
I think a visit of the Ankle Brachial Index category is worth a try particularly as it contains only two videos.
Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) Test: How to Perform
For once, the comments appear to be universally upbeat, positive and supportive (wonders will never cease). The video is close to seven- and three-quarter minutes and sadly still incorporates that music at the start. This time the medical Professional is John Cooke who actually seems to have a good voice and a very relaxed style of presentation – heaven be praised.
In addition, the muppet with the music mania has not decorated this with background noises. In fact it is marvellously quiet and calm. Unfortunately, there are some additional noises coming from an handheld doppler device, employed as part of the video. I don’t think these will exclude this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist, but it might mean that the video gets dropped to the archive list on subsequent review.
Venous Testing
This is just over five minutes so not long. It starts with the familiar music (spit spit). John Cooke and again he starts with a good delivery well measured and low toned. The doppler device is heard as before. I’m not certain if that might not prove noisy of a night time. I’ll include the video in the playlist but it may suffer transfer to archive if it proves excessively distracting.
So the Ankle Brachial Index category came to the rescue, (marginally).
The Stanford Medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The Procrastination Pen playlist (which is no-doubt what you have all been reading this in order to locate) is found here:
I have been listening to this playlist most nights and some of the videos that were members have now been removed. If any of your favourites are missing from that main playlist you can find them here in the archive list:
Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional intrusive noises.
The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:
I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.
Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.
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Until next time.
Photo by Shona Macrae
The Procrastination Pen 