The importance of comfort content

Summary

In today's fast-paced world, comfort content provides a much-needed escape for many people. Creator Jerico dives into the reasons why comfort content resonates with so many, even though what is comforting is subjective. From 3D animations to personal storytelling, these videos offer a moment of peace in an increasingly stressful world. Jerico also discusses the personal experiences that shaped his understanding of comfort content and delves into the genuine connections formed with creators, emphasizing the importance of authenticity over reliance on trends.

Highlights

• Jerico talks about the chaotic world and the need for comfort content to relax. 🌍
• Different types of content (like cats or Lo-fi music) help people unwind. 🐱🎶
• The video explores why different people find different things relaxing. 🧠
• Jerico shares his personal journey with comfort content during tough times. 💪
• The role of authentic personalities in making content creators relatable. 🎤

Key Takeaways

• Comfort content offers an escape from the chaos of the world. 🌟
• What's relaxing varies greatly from person to person. 🧘‍♂️
• Authentic connections with creators enhance the comfort content experience. 🤝
• Jerico's personal experiences highlight comfort content's significance. 🕊️
• Genuine creators who stay true to themselves resonate more with audiences. 💖

Overview

Just when the world seems too hectic to handle, Jerico highlights the soothing power of comfort content, an oasis of calm in a frenetic digital landscape. It's the type of content that lets you switch off and unwind, often brought to life by creators who genuinely connect with their audiences. For Jerico, this genre ranges from quirky animal videos to beloved music—every piece tailored to provide a bite-sized getaway from daily stresses.

Delving deeper, Jerico addresses the subjective nature of relaxation. What some find comforting, others might not, emphasizing the wide-reaching spectrum of comfort content. His insight paints a picture of an intricate world where creators use intentional artistic techniques to foster peace. As Jerico shares, it’s the personal touches and stories—like his own escape into gaming videos during the financial crash—that paint comfort in vibrant, relatable colors.

Central to the charm of comfort content is authenticity. Jerico discusses how real emotions and genuine experiences cultivate a loyal following. This isn't about pretending or following trends, but rather about creators revealing their true selves. The parasocial relationships that often develop through comfort content can cultivate a supportive online community, making such experiences all the more enriching and warm. Embracing this connection, Jerico invites us all to find solace in these shared digital moments.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter introduces the theme of the video, which is centered around the idea of 'comfort content'. The narrator describes their current setting on an island as a metaphor for experiencing extremes, which emphasizes the need and desire for relaxation and comfort. They express a personal aim to discuss why comfort content is significant and how it can provide relaxation.
• 00:30 - 02:00: The Fast-Paced Internet and True Crime Content Chapter: The Fast-Paced Internet and True Crime Content Summary: The chapter delves into the chaotic nature of consuming information in today's world, illustrating how easily misinformation can spread, as shown through a fictitious claim about an asteroid. The author engages with their audience, exploring what content people turn to for relaxation and comfort amidst this chaos, such as watching calming videos like cats eating.
• 02:00 - 05:00: The Two Genres of Comfort Content This chapter discusses the concept of 'comfort content' and how it contrasts with the fast-paced nature of modern internet content. It highlights the different types of videos people watch to relax, such as low-fi montages and pimple-popping videos, which may seem unconventional but are preferred by some for their soothing quality. The chapter also mentions the author's intention to share their own favorite comfort videos throughout the content.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Personal Experience with Comfort Content This chapter explores the concept of comfort content, emphasizing its subjective nature. The discussion begins with the fast-paced, non-stop nature of media consumption, drawing a parallel with personal experiences of ADHD and anxiety. It points out that what one person finds relaxing might be stressful to another, using examples like true crime videos and pimple-popping videos to illustrate how varied individual preferences can be. The chapter emphasizes that comfort content is deeply personal and varies greatly from person to person.
• 07:00 - 11:00: Being a Comfort Creator The chapter delves into the concept of comfort content, a type of media that provides relaxation and satisfaction to audiences. The discussion introduces the idea of two distinct genres within this spectrum. The first genre focuses on content that is satisfying and resonates personally with individuals, such as specific sounds or songs that people find enjoyable and relaxing. This kind of content is often described as 'scratching your brain,' providing a pleasing mental experience. The chapter hints at a second genre, which will be explored later, and centers the initial discussion on the first category of comfort content.
• 11:00 - 15:00: Parasocial Relationships and Comfort Content This chapter explores the concept of parasocial relationships and comfort content, emphasizing the human brain's preference for smooth motion and completed animation. It discusses the idea that while real-life motion doesn't always follow an easy ease, animation benefits from it as it appears more natural and comforting to viewers. The chapter also uses the metaphor of an arrow hitting a bullseye to illustrate the number of frames needed to convey motion, hinting at the minimalism and efficiency in animation.
• 15:00 - 18:00: The Value of Community in Comfort Content In this chapter, the focus is on how animation creates the illusion of movement by relying on the viewer's brain to perceive motion between frames. It highlights the artistic and scientific methods employed to make people feel comfortable and relaxed through content. The chapter further discusses how favorite musicians or artists deliberately use techniques to evoke specific feelings through their work, emphasizing that the enjoyment and comfort derived from these works are intentional and crafted.

The importance of comfort content Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 nowadays everything seems a little bit extreme i am currently on an island infested with kind of dramatic a little bit overboard sometimes you just want to sit back and relax and have a good time in today's video I want to talk about the importance of comfort content and why it even relaxes us in the first place i hope you enjoy the video i said this in the beginning but I truly
• 00:30 - 01:00 mean it it is really a crazy world yesterday on the news I saw that NASA said that an asteroid was about to hit our planet or something nasa confirms the day of the end of the world that Stephven Hawking predicted huh i mean that is a lie but the fact that you even believe me for a second explains how dire the situation is but recently I asked my audience what do you watch to comfort you what do you like to relax to what do you put on when you had a hard day and you need something just to turn off to turn off your brain and have a good time some people like to watch cats uh chewing their food as a way to relax
• 01:00 - 01:30 some people like to watch these lowfi '9s montages that's how they relax some people even like to watch those popping videos as a form of relax it's kind of crazy i didn't even expect that to be honest throughout the video I'm going to put my own comfort videos that I like to watch that relaxes me comfort content goes against the main appeal of the modern internet nowadays every YouTube video is extremely fast-paced cutting 5 seconds cutting out
• 01:30 - 02:00 the breast between the sounds there's not really a moment to stop and think or to enjoy the thing that you're watching everything is go go go it feels like me when I have ADHD and anxiety discussing why comfort content works is kind of hard because it's subjective right what you find relaxing another person might not find relaxing like for example a lot of people find true crime videos relaxing while another person might find them stressful and anxietyinducing some people like those uh pimple popping videos and other
• 02:00 - 02:30 people don't they find them stressing and not relaxful it's really hard to say what is relaxing and what isn't relaxing but I think that there's something deeper running through the spectrum of comfort content i think there's two genres of comfort content the first one is the satisfying seeing something happen so like these uh 3D renders the first kind of content is the stuff that scratches your brain where you're like "Oh I love this." Like a sound or like um a song or something that you put on that you listen to and you vibe out to second one I'll get to later i want to focus on this first group first as a 3D
• 02:30 - 03:00 artist you had to be conscious of the fact that the human brain likes certain things they like a smooth motion an easy ease people like seeing a completed animation even though you're technically like in real life if you throw a ball it doesn't have like an easy ease to it but it would look weird and it would look unnatural to a lot of people so you have to know how to make it comforting in a way if that makes sense imagine an arrow hitting a bullseye how many frames do you think that takes three frames two what about zero nothing's there and then
• 03:00 - 03:30 it suddenly appears with the tail vibrating into place to me this feels far more impactful than animating the frames in between because at the end of the day animation itself is an illusion nothing is actually moving it's your brain inserting the movement between those two there's an art and a science to making people feel comfortable and relaxed it's not an accident your favorite musician or artist have been using these gimmicks to make you feel a certain way your favorite song that makes you feel relaxed or comfortable was probably purposely designed to be that way and there's nothing wrong with
• 03:30 - 04:00 that but people should know like there's an intention behind it there's this amazing video by this guy named Synthex i think that's his name where he talks about all the tricks and gimmicks that musicians use to uh make you feel some type of way to like get a track stuck in your head it's ear candy really and to arpeggiate it maybe not for the entire time but just a little flutter at the end of a bar and build up to it with I think this genre of comfort content is something that just scratches an itch whether it's watching a ball go through a hoop or
• 04:00 - 04:30 watching a random cat eat food it does something to your brain where you finally clicks and you finally feel relaxed the science behind this isn't really clear with some people saying that it's because of nostalgia you used to roll things down the stairs that's why you like watching roll things roll down the stairs now other people say that it's the human brain likes to watch things be completed so whether it's an animation of a ball going up and down whether it's an abstract animation of a cycle continuing or whatever it's your brain filling in those gaps but that
• 04:30 - 05:00 doesn't really make sense to me and it doesn't really explain ASMR and it doesn't really explain the sound design that makes the um satisfying renders actually work cuz if they didn't have sound a lot of people wouldn't watch them so I think that theory is incomplete last thing I want to say is that while you can use tricks and gimmicks to fake or uh make someone feel some type of way you can't really do that like on a personality level and that's a little bit of foreshadowing for later before we go over the second part of comfort content I want to go over my
• 05:00 - 05:30 own experience with it during the 2008 financial crash my dad lost his job and we couldn't afford getting a uh Xbox 360 at the time so instead I had nothing to play cuz my PlayStation my Gamecube were breaking down and it was at the end of the life cycle of those consoles so they didn't have any new games on them so I would go online and I would watch content creators like Hutch or other people who used to be on Machinima and I would watch them play like Modern Warfare 2 and I got to live through them and kind of escape the financial crisis that was going on the great recession that was going on it's like that meme of
• 05:30 - 06:00 that millennial core of like the Wii music playing while your while your mother and father fight in the background no I think I like it i don't think it's easy but yes I do think you like it no yeah I like that was like literally my life it worked for two reasons one I couldn't afford the games itself so it was kind of cool watching other people play them even though I wouldn't be able to afford them for another 3 to four years and the second reason is that you like the personality like they tell cool stories while they're playing games or cool life stories i remember Hutch one time and I was like eight or nine i remember this
• 06:00 - 06:30 he was talking about how he moved to a neighborhood and then how he had to move out of the neighborhood because the guys in the neighborhood didn't like him i don't know why but that that has stuck in my head for like years uh the personality aspect of it kind of connects all these genres of escapism and that's why I relate to people who watch comfort creators nowadays cuz I kind of get it i was watching people play video games that I couldn't play cuz I wanted the feeling of playing those video games and you kind of want the feeling of living the life that that person has but you can't really fake that like as a creator like a lot of
• 06:30 - 07:00 people who are comfort creators they're personality creators unlike the artist beforehand there's no tricks or gimmicks that you can use it's like you have to be your authentic self or you're never going to be successful if you look at the biggest comfort content creators they're mostly themselves of course you know they play it up a little bit for the camera or to be entertaining but it's not like a fake persona that they're playing tana is Tana uh Cory Kinchin is Cory Kinchin and Markiplier is Markiplier you can't especially cuz
• 07:00 - 07:30 they've been doing it for so long like 11 or 13 years like you can't fake it for that long you just have to be your true authentic self and hope that people really vibe with what you're doing and you can see it nowadays especially on TikTok so many of them are so inauthentic and it it's so clear that they don't want to like build something real they just want to sell you something or like sell you this is the lifestyle that you're supposed to have and it's it's just annoying i don't even get me started this is exactly how you're going to become a bingeable comfort creator because there is no
• 07:30 - 08:00 reason that you shouldn't be someone's favorite creator to follow i am seeing a huge push back on traditional influencory content and a huge craving for comfort creators the type of creators you can follow who make you feel happy or inspired or like you're in a safe space so here is exactly how we're going to do that step number one we are going to choose a signature series that people would actually want to binge watch or come back for weekly if you're like Julia I don't even know where to start here's an entire list of signature series ideas i get asked a lot how do you be someone's comfort creator
• 08:00 - 08:30 and I have two answers to this and I'm going to answer them both for you right now first answer is you can't you don't just um do a certain thing and then become someone's comfort creator that is a title they give you that is not a title you give yourself this has become a huge buzzword comfort creator a lot of people are misrepresenting what it means they're saying like "Oh it's cozy content it's aesthetic it's you know things that make you feel warm and fuzzy." Not always a cover creator is literally just someone's go-to
• 08:30 - 09:00 creator for making them feel good and that doesn't have to be warm and fuzzy it could be someone that tells it like it is of what's going on in the world around them because that makes them feel less alone there's no one way to be a comfort creator turns out people don't like it when you turn your phone off for a few weeks and tell them to [ __ ] off and don't bother me with [ __ ] I don't care about people nowadays think that escapism is bad i see tons of videos on it like consumerism escapism
• 09:00 - 09:30 is bad or you have a parasocial relationship or blah blah blah you know all of these things are true like it is escapism and you do have a parasocial relationship i don't think that's necessarily bad for me for example I used to not put warnings in my videos when I talked about sensitive topics until one day somebody who watched me like regularly had like a moment cuz I was talking about sensitive topic that she endured and she wasn't ready for it kind of upset her a lot and that makes sense valid feeling to feel but a lot of people would say that that's silly or that doesn't matter like grow up or get thicker skin or whatever but that kind
• 09:30 - 10:00 of goes against of what being a creator is and what your audience expects from you it's parasocial in a way you come to a video and you trust that it's going to be a comfortable space or you trust that it's not going to be weird like right now you trust me not to put a jump scare in the middle of the video boom the hairs on my arm stand of a evil Larry but you see what I mean that would have been upsetting if it was like an actual jump scare you'd been like but that's a parasocial relationship if you have an idea of me from uh that you expect from you have an idea of the content that you expect and you have an idea of what you expect me to say you have an idea of the
• 10:00 - 10:30 presentation of what I'm talking about on the channel and you have an idea that it's not going to stress you out if you click on the video that is parasocial and there's nothing wrong with that i have that and I'll get to that in a second but after that I started putting warnings when I talk about sensitive topics in my videos solely from that reason cuz it felt bad i felt like oh you know I don't want somebody who just wants to try to relax after a long day to feel bad while watching my a video that I made so I put them in there parasocial is necessarily bad and I think that a part of the comfort genre
• 10:30 - 11:00 is a parasocial attachment i just don't think that it's a bad thing no one on this app is comforting anymore like it's so annoying and I'm kind of over it like I'm just a girl in my 20s whose mom just died who moved to a new city has no friends and struggles with depression and ADHD and anxiety a regular girl not every video has to be you telling me 50 things that I need off Amazon like I don't need them actually thanks i feel like every time I open this app it's just someone telling me like what I should and shouldn't be wearing and like making me second guess my own style it's so annoying like what happened to just
• 11:00 - 11:30 being friends i don't even know how to explain what I'm saying everything just seems strategic and fake and I feel like everyone is a scammer low key like everyone is a scammer i haven't washed my hair in like two weeks i'm breaking out horrendously my eyebrows oh like I'm just a normal girl i feel like Tik Tok out of all platforms is like the place where it didn't need to be so curated and we've lost the plot i just want people to feel comforted and like a
• 11:30 - 12:00 friend we're friends like when I come on here and I say like "Guys help me figure this out." Like I actually mean it and I'm asking for advice for real i want your opinion genuinely can't decide not like "Guys help me decide." head and like you already knew the decision of what you were going to do in your head you're just saying that so people will comment not every video has to have like a purpose to sell something we're just chatting you and I right now we're just hanging out while I'm tweezing my eyebrows because I look like a woolly mammoth i just genuinely enjoy making
• 12:00 - 12:30 content and talking i don't like have friends where I live and making content sometimes is like literally the only thing that gets me out of bed and I genuinely enjoy doing it i don't know it's just frustrating to see people like building followers and then like using them i want my content to feel like a group chat we're literally all friends if I like something I'll tell you if I get something new I'll show you that's just been something that's been on my mind like the past couple of days i felt like I needed to say the words out loud like you ever feel comforted by any of my videos like don't be shy don't be shy
• 12:30 - 13:00 say hi i want this to feel like a group chat we're all girly swiries we're all figuring it out none of us know what's going on we're all lost so like we should just be lost together that sounded like a corny quote at the end of a romcom and that's not what I meant for it to sound like and I have a parasocial relationship so for this to make sense you have to understand I moved around a lot as a kid so I got into like a tons of fights i have like this big scar on my arm and I'll get to that story another video anyway I used to get in fights all the time and so one of the
• 13:00 - 13:30 ways I got through that is a lot of music i was one of the biggest fans of Bo Burnham because of his song Nerds i wasn't even like a nerd or anything but because I moved around so much like I was I never had like a friend group to fit into or like I was always the fourth wheel i would get into arguments with people simply because I was like new and they were like oh they were like try to test me or whatever so like I related to the song and so I have a parasocial relationship with Bo Burnham because I am a fan of him simply because of that era where I grew up where his music helped me get through it i keep up with Bo Burnham even though I don't like I like some of his latest stuff simply
• 13:30 - 14:00 because of that one point in my life and everybody has that that is a normal thing and that's part of the comforting experience like when I turn on Bo Burnham I have an expectation of him as a creator that he's not going to be like weird if that makes sense and that's one of the reasons that people like Cory Kinchin are popular even though they take these massive breaks is because their audience knows when Cory comes back his audience knows that he's not going to have this weird genre of content or say something weird or divisive and it's going to be a good time and they're just going to relax and he doesn't overshare his personal life with his audience and he doesn't he
• 14:00 - 14:30 doesn't engage parasocial reality in a bad way he does it to make you comfortable and for you to like the experience of watching his video and I think that it's fine and you might say that that's bad like you're getting money off of this parasocial relationship but I would argue and I'm even arguing this as a fan is that you get a place of community you get a place of comfort you get a place to relax and feel like you fit in with other people from that creator and what they're doing you know I think one of the reasons that parasocial relationships are bad a lot of the times is because that part of that comfort content that a lot of people enjoy or seek the creator kind of
• 14:30 - 15:00 abuses it in a way they're like "If you don't do this this and this or if you don't defend me I'm going to take away this community and this comfortable position that you found yourself online." And so people defend them but if you don't do that and you I don't think that that's a bad thing at all anyway I hope you enjoyed the video click here for the next one have a great day