If you are the kind of person who finds watching videos of people cutting soap or colored kinetic sand relaxing, then I highly suggest this article is not for you. And that is because I hate satisfying videos. 

So how exactly did satisfying videos become so popular? According to Wikipedia.org, in 2010 on Reddit, a subreddit caused the trend to emerge. Satisfying videos were officially established in 2013. The Reddit user had 2.6 million subscribers following up in 2019. 

Okay, so we know how they became so popular, but what is the big deal about them? What makes them so special? 

Professor Robert Colombo spoke to www.lemonade.com on the now Instagram trendy videos. “Watching Oddly Satisfying videos cause the release of chemicals in the brain that bring about happiness and positivity – namely, serotonin and dopamine. … So, in essence, we get pleasure from Oddly Satisfying videos as if we were actually cutting soap or crunching slime ourselves.” 

So you are telling me that by watching someone cut sand I should feel relaxed? Because that is not it, dawg. In fact whenever I see any kind of satisfying video I cringe. 

Why you may ask?

Well first of all just listening to someone cut a bar of soap makes me uncomfy. The little noises the pieces of cut-up soap make when they hit the surface just makes me think of someone chewing plastic directly next to my ear. Like who wants to listen to that? Sometimes I can barely manage to make it through a single meal listening to other people around me chew and make sucking noises as they eat their food. 

The same thing applies to slime, listening to people press on and fold slime over and over again just makes me think of walking in a giant puddle of mud. And we all know that it makes a horrible squelching sound. 

Some people might say, “You can just mute it and maybe it will not be as cringy or uncomfy for you.” I mean yeah sure I could, but then again, when you look at something, you are reminded of what kind of sound it makes. People made, “I can hear this picture” memes for a reason, and that is to remind others of what something sounds like. 

Second of all, those videos are really slow, and they trigger me. Watching someone cut a bar of soap like it is rock hard and they can not get the knife over it fast enough. Like come on Cindy it is not a brick! Even with sand when people have to be so dang dramatic and take their time slicing the knife through some weird colored kinetic sand. 

And last but not least, the products in these videos are WASTEFUL! If you stop to think about it, what happens to all the slime, soap, and sand that are seen in all these videos? Do people still use the soap they cut up to wash their hands? Is the sand simply put back in a container to be played with later? What about the slime? Does the creator simply keep using the slime after uploading that video? Or does it all simply get thrown in the garbage after only being used once? 

You could say, “Oh do not worry I am sure they reuse it and do not just throw it out!” But you simply do not know that. So while videos of colorful products being cut up may be ‘soothing’ or ‘joyful’ they can also be wasteful and not worth it. 

Maybe just try crunching some leaves outside instead.