Stimboard

About

A Stimboard or Stim Board is a slang term for a collection of satisfying, themed video clips (usually GIFs) made to give viewers (often autistic or ADHD) stimulation and focus. Stimboards first became popularized on Tumblr in September 2019 and spread over the following years, becoming further popularized on sites like X and TikTok. Stimboards are sometimes used to troll viewers by bait-and-switching the viewer with a screamer or piece of shock content, leading some stimboard creators to include the notice "safe/srs" to tell viewers they're safe to view without getting bait-and-switched.

Origin

Although it is unclear who created the first stimboard, the earliest known stimboard is a "Stitch Stimboard" posted by Tumblr^[1] user sweetsuicidalmind on September 19th, 2016, consisting of satisfying images in a blue color scheme with a GIF of Stitch from Lilo & Stitch, garnering over 1,200 notes in seven years (shown below).

Stimboard: A digital mood board composed of video fragments (usually in the form of animated gifs) conveying pleasant or satisfying physical sensation.^[6]

Spread

Stimboards became increasingly popularized over the following years, inspiring dedicated stimboard Tumblr accounts. For example, on November 11th, 2016, Tumblr^[2] user meekstims started posting stimboards, the first garnering over 115,000 notes in seven years. On March 4th, 2017, Tumblr^[3] user heavymetalstims posted a jellyfish stimboard, garnering over 3,800 notes in six years (shown below).

Stimboards became increasingly popular on TikTok in late 2022, including bait-and-switch stimboards that put scary or shocking content at the end. For example, on December 15th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @jyshjm posted a stimboard video that gained over 3.1 million views in eight months (shown below, left). On December 28th, TikToker^[5] @_stawberry..bubblegum posted a jumpscare stimboard that gained over 600,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Stimboards remained popular on Tumblr throughout the 2020s, with some Tumblr users creating very specific stimboards for others at their request. On July 27th, 2023, Tumblr^[7] user unusualstimboards posted a stimboard consisting of cool GIFs of skeletons, garnering over 11,000 notes in a month (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References