POV: Your teen says it all the time. But why?
Everyone knows that “POV” is short for “point of view” to represent a first-person perspective but teens also use it in the second-person to strengthen their opinions, both on social media and in verbal dialogue.
On TikTok, “POV” can frame a video from the eyes of the person filming (e.g., a surfer riding a wave), so the viewer feels part of the action.
“POV” is also a way to contextualize an overall experience despite seeing it from the vantage point of an observer. For example, video captions such as, “POV: You’re a cashier confronting a Karen,” “POV: Your boyfriend is a gaming addict” or “POV: You caught her cheating.”
Benjamin Morse, a visiting lecturer in New Media at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, says “POV” got lift on TikTok.
“The early version of ‘POV’ meant, ‘This is a video from my point of view,’” Morse tells TODAY.com. “That’s different from professional videos of yesteryear, seen from third-person perspectives.”
Morse adds, “The generation growing up on TikTok are now shooting videos on their smartphones, which means the viewer can see things exactly as the person filming.”
The phrase “POV” is also used in verbal conversations to share a strongly held opinion.
“It’s sort of like saying, ‘I think’ but with the emphasis of a personal endorsement or a rejection,” says Morse. “It’s an extra layer of intensity and certainty which says, ‘I really ascribe to this’ or ‘I’m taking ownership of it’ versus, ‘This is something I’ve observed from my point of view.’”
Here’s how a “POV” caption is used on TikTok.
The video can show angles seen by, say, a GoPro camera.
“POV” also captions scenes from a second-person perspective.
A third form of “POV” is to post from the “viewpoint” of a non-living object.
