#okay I hate using the same caption across platforms but

[ashdoodle-s]

apothanein thelo

[sincerelymarinette]

A Recorded Life (11/50) - Miraculous Ladybug

Words: 2316 Chapter Summary: Time for Marinette to get some work in for Jagged Stone's project! Also, Adrien drops by, maybe it's time to make a video. Author's Note: I'm running out of prewritten chapters and have so little time to write. I'm here trying, and I'm also trying to figure out when the climax is a good time to have in the story. ALSO there may not be a few updates for a few weeks: I will be on vacation next week, then moving off to college the following few weeks. Gonna be crazy.

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Impromptu Q&A with Adrien

---

Marinette was completely focused, sketching out an idea she had for one of the album covers. She had a bad case of art block, and now that she had some inspiration, she wasn't going to lose it. Jagged's song was playing in the background on repeat so she would get all aspects of the song, and Tikki was watching from her perch above Marinette.

Laying on the floor, she was sketching Jagged on a raised platform with lights pointing at him, creating a silhouette. His hands were pointed up towards the comers of the paper. As Marinette began to outline the background, she heard her name being called. "Just a second!" She shouted as she continued drawing.

A minute passed, and Marinette had already forgotten about her name being yelled. She jumped when her trap door opened, and she lost grip on her pencil, and it flew across the room. "Marinette?" Adrien's head popped into her room. "Throwing things?"

She sighed and laid her head down when she realized it wasn't an intruder, only Adrien. "You scared me."

"Couldn't tell," He smirked and picked up her pencil once he got into the room.  "What are you up to?"

"I'm working on one of the designs for Jagged's album project. I was inspired," She showed Adrien the sketch. "What are you doing here? Did we have something scheduled? Oh no, I'm so sorry!"

Adrien put his hands up and shook his head. "No, no, we didn't. Don't worry," He told her. "I sent you some texts and called, Alya was worried because she hadn't heard from you all day. So I called the bakery, and your mom said you were designing and probably would not pay attention to that stuff, so she recommended if I needed something from you to just come over," He shrugged. "But, I now realize you were in the zone, and I probably ruined that."

Marinette giggled. "It's okay; I needed to take a break. What's up?"

Adrien chuckled. "Oh...not much. Alya texted me to ask if I had heard from you, so I tried to get to you, and now we're here. My father and Nathalie are out of town, and the stuff they had planned for me fell through, so I feel like a free man!" Adrien replayed his day. "And I let Alya know you're alive, she was just worried. But that was such a tough adventure, now I'm starving," Adrien said.

"I would think so; you've had a busy day," Marinette smirked.

"Well, want to come with me? It seems as if you've had a busy day as well," Adrien motioned towards her sketches. "Reward yourself."

Marinette shook her head with a little laugh as she went to stand up. She grabbed her supplies off the floor and loved them to her desk. "Where are we going? Do I need to bring a camera?" She asked.

Adrien shrugged. "Who knows, weird things could happen at any time. We do have a Hawkmoth around, and maybe Alya needs a run for her money if you document it."

"I couldn't steal her brand!" Marinette gasped. "But I'll bring the camera just in case," Grabbing the camera, Adrien opened the trap door back up and started to head down with a smile on his face. Marinette grabbed her little purse and opened it just enough to let Tikki in. "Where are we headed?" She asked and followed Adrien down the steps.

Adrien shrugged. "I don't know; there's this little cafe near the park if you want to try that?"

"Perfect!" Marinette smiled. As they left the bakery, Marinette snapped a quick photo of the two of them and posted it on Instagram.

@MarinetteDupainCheng Between bad art block and sudden bursts of inspiration for the album project, Adrien got hungry, and now I'm going to lunch. I need to find a reason to get him in a video again...even though it's only been a few days. How would you guys like to see us play our favorite video game?

Adrien chuckled at the post when Marinette let him read and approve it before posting. He clicked post for her and waited for the likes and comments to roll in. I'm only a few minutes of random conversations, they ended up at the cafe and waited for their water to be served. "So, Adrien," Marinette switched to English when pointed her camera at him as they waited. "I just posted that picture, and now there are a good couple hundred questions on it. Maybe I should make a question and answer vlog where we answer the questions on the picture, but not tell anyone, so people get the real questions answered."

"I think that is an amazing idea!" Adrien smiled widely. "I'll pull up the picture and find some comments, but first I'm going to figure out what I'm having for lunch. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm starving."

Marinette's eyebrows raised. "Wow, you really are a free man today. Choosing your own food and everything!"

"Hush," Adrien put his finger up. "This is an important decision."

A few minutes passed, and they placed their order, and Marinette had the camera back out to answer questions. They were sat in a booth, so she jumped to the other side to be next to Adrien, and set the camera in front of them so they both would be in the frame. "Some of these questions are so good, I can't wait to talk about them," Adrien chuckled as he scrolled through the comments.

Marinette shook her head and clapped in front of the camera to sync everything up. She pressed record and waited a few seconds to start this segment. "I'm over here now!" She waved into the camera. "We have successfully ordered lunch, and now we're going to answer some questions for an impromptu q-and-a. For the record, I did edit the caption on my post so people would ask questions, but it was an hour after I posted it. So it's kinda a surprise," She winked at the camera.

Marinette pointed to Adrien to have him ask the first question, and he smiled. "How did you two become friends?"

Rubbing her hands together, Marinette chuckled. "Buckle up, kiddos," She said. "It all started on our second day of school a few years ago. I walk in, and I see this blond boy putting gum on my seat. I yelled at him and put a tissue over it and sat out of the way of it. I hated him, he was brand new to school and already didn't like me! What a bully," Marinette rolled her eyes. "So, I was mad at this boy, right? Wouldn't even look his way, and when he tried to explain himself, I didn't listen," Marinette crossed her arms.

Adrien giggled as he listened to her dramatically tell the story of their friendship. "This also happened to be the day of the first Akuma France had witnessed, so everything was crazy, too. After the Akuma, we ended the day at school with rain, and I didn't have an umbrella. And of course, there comes blond boy with his umbrella to stroll by me. I didn't look at him, and he just sighed. Then, I let him explain himself. Partially because I was stuck standing there waiting to call my parents for help, but I hesitantly listened. Then he told me he was only trying to remove the gum another girl put there and only wanted to help, and then he gave me his umbrella. I stole it, and it's still at my house."

"To conclude, Adrien wasn't involved in this story at all. He sat behind me in class for three years before I even noticed him- hey!" Marinette chirped when Adrien nudged her with his elbow, a hurt look on his face.

Adrien rolled his eyes. "To conclude, it was my first day of school! I'd basically been stuck inside all my life; I had no idea how to interact with other people my age that wasn't Chloé. I was lucky I was even allowed to go to school," Adrien shrugged, then furrowed his eyebrows. "You still have my umbrella?"

"It's a nice umbrella. Probably going to be worth something someday," Marinette shrugged.

A smirk appeared on Adrien's face when he tried to hold in a laugh. "You forgot the best part! You opened the umbrella; then it closed on you! That was so funny, made my day!" Adrien continued laughing, while Marinette rolled her eyes.

"And that was only question one!" She announced. "Find me another one, my trusty assistant."

Adrien scrolled for a few seconds to find a good one. "How do you guys balance everything you do?" Adrien asked, then laughed. "Ha! I don't!" He said. "I barely get any sleep. Between school, and modeling, and all the countless activities, while also trying to maintain a social life...you think I balance it?" He joked. "I try to balance it, but it's hard. There's always so much going on."

Marinette nodded in agreement. "I'm the same way. I average very few hours of sleep every night with everything I do," She said and peered at the phone. "Ooh, this one next."

A second after Adrien read it, his facial expression was difficult to read. "What's something you wouldn't have expected to know about the other, but you do?" Adrien asked. "Hold on; I'm confused."

"Like something you wouldn't think the other person would do, or a personality trait I have you weren't expecting...kind of like that," Marinette tried to explain.

Adrien nodded and struggled to think. "See, everyone thinks I'm going to say I didn't expect you to be as passionate, or determined, but you are so passionate and determined that I knew that and everyone can tell. I'm never really surprised by things with you...I have to think on that," Adrien concluded.

Marinette's smile grew wide. "I didn't expect you to be such a rebel. I know you have a lot going on, and when we first met, you listened to nearly everything your father said. Now you're telling me you fake your piano classes and sneak off from time to time," Marinette said.

"Hey! What if he sees this? Shh!" Adrien jumped.

With raised eyebrows, Marinette gave him an annoyed look. "You think he watches my videos? Really? Adrien, come on," She said.

Adrien shrugged. "Who knows, he could be scoping out his up-and-coming competition. But maybe it's an excuse to check up on everything I'm doing," Adrien reasoned. "But he's got a real storm coming if he doesn't get you on his design team...you'd run him out of business!" Adrien told her.

Marinette scoffed and shook her head. "Next question?" She asked.

"Is Alya jealous that Adrien is taking her spot on the channel?" Adrien asked.

Quickly, Marinette shook her head. "Not at all! You guys may not know it, but Alya does so much work behind the scenes to help me with videos. More so for my main channel, but she helps me come up with ideas, shoot many videos, and runs my website. Not to mention, she's never shy giving me ideas for this channel as well and is always ready to help. I'm sure she enjoys the little break she gets when Adrien butts his way in, she's working really hard at her reporting internship and getting into the school she wants to. All while trying to maintain the Ladyblog, her social life, and her love life!" Marinette explained quickly. "She's like, a superhero."

"Say it louder for the people in the back!" Adrien cupped his hands around his mouth.

Marinette snatched the phone out of Adrien's hand to ask a question. "Who's your favorite superhero from the Avengers?" She asked and sighed. "I don't know about Adrien, but I love so many. Let's see-"

"Oh!" Adrien shouted. "I'm surprised you're such a big Chat Noir fan!" He interrupted.

"What?"

"From the question earlier! I'm surprised you like Chat Noir so much. I would have bet money on it that you liked Ladybug more, and I was shocked to find out!" Adrien gushed. "I'm sure he'd be flattered, by the way. Especially with that awesome outfit you made inspired by him. Still excited, I got to wear that."

Marinette chuckled. "I've met Chat Noir, and he seems really down to Earth. He protected me when an Akuma fell in love with me, and once I confessed that I was in love with him because I panicked over something? It was weird, but then my dad got akumatized, and I was basically Rapunzel, and he helped save me from that too. I haven't seen him in a while, but he was pretty awesome- minus all the puns."

Adrien gasped. "You don't like puns?" He put his hand over his heart and pretended to be hurt.

"I don't dislike them. He was just...very annoying when it came to puns. There were so many, Adrien," Marinette explained.

"I don't know if our friendship can survive this, Mari," Adrien said. As he crossed his arms and turned away from her, the waiter walked over with their food. "Perfect timing, now I have something to distract me from the traitor!" Adrien quietly shouted.

"I guess this is as good a time as any to end the video. Make sure to leave a like if you want more and subscribe to never miss an upload! You can check out all of mine and Adrien's social media around our faces or in the description below! See you guys next time!" Marinette made a peace sign and nudged Adrien with her arm. His arms were still crossed, and he tried not to giggle as he looked away from the camera.

The video ended with Adrien grumbling "traitor" as he made a peace sign as well.

--

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies@bookishserendipity03@avatheexceed @gkz10 @coccinellegirl@kat-thatoneweirdo@strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman@lilgaga98

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 7

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG

Notes: (Masterlist) Ooh now the internet’s getting involved. Everything isn’t quite going to Jason’s original plan, but the modifications make it better XD It was kinda fun coming up with everyone’s handles. Fun fact, this is the first time Cloudy’s first name is used/revealed!

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes​ @welovegroot @nanna-the-batmum @probsjosh

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

^^^^^

Knock-knock!

I glanced up from where I was bandaging my bleeding knuckles after the first patrol I’d been on since I arrived in the future. “Who is it?” I called.

“Damian,” Damian’s voice replied.

“Come in,” I said.

The door to my bedroom creaked open. “You’re trending,” he said, stepping in.

“Huh?”

“The Instagram photo you shared to your Cloudburst account at the beginning of the night has gone absolutely viral.” Damian approached me. “Here. Let me wrap your right hand.” He took the bandages from me with one hand, and my right hand in his other one. Gently, he began to wrap the bandage around my bleeding knuckles that had split open again when I showered.

I grinned. I’d taken a photo of my boots standing on the edge of a skyscraper and captioned it, “It’s good to be home. #CloudburstsBack” and put it on my old verified @CloudburstofGotham Instagram account, also sharing it to my vigilante Twitter. “Thanks,” I said to Damian while I picked up my phone and opened Instagram—then Twitter. The hashtag #CloudburstsBack was trending on both platforms.

Every single vigilante and hero who knew me and had social media accounts for their hero personas had liked and commented on it. One was Clark Kent, though, on his personal account that he used for journalism. Asking if he could get an exclusive interview for the Daily Planet. Vicki Vale was asking the same, but for the Gotham Gazette. Part of me wanted to keep my city pride and accept Vale’s invitation over Clark’s, but the other that really didn’t like Vicki—she just rubbed me the wrong way—wanted to accept Clark’s. Also because he was a friend.

“Well, this is going to be interesting,” I said, setting my phone down. Damian tied off the bandages. “Thank you. If I’d done that on my own they’d be a mess. My left hand is so useless at refined motor control.”

He nodded in acknowledgment. “Did you… enjoy patrol?”

“Heck yeah. Two days in a future I don’t know but patrol is a constant. Felt almost like old times. You’re a lot taller to fight next to now, though,” I said. “I used to be able to throw stuff over your head. But I guess now it’s my turn to get stuff thrown over my head.”

Damian gave a little, “Hmm,” that sounded more like a laugh than a grunt. “I suppose it is,” he said. He set his hands on my shoulders. “It is unfamiliar to have you be so much smaller than I am.”

“We should spar tomorrow. Get used to the difference,” I suggested, sitting down on my bed with my hairbrush and combing through my wet hair. “Do a partner-up where we go against Jay, Dick, and Tim. I missed a lot and you and Tim growing taller is one of those things.”

“Drake only grew three extra inches,” Damian remarked, sitting in my desk chair on a gesture from me.

“Well yeah but five-eight to five-eleven is still significant,” I remarked. “Especially when you being six-three means Dick is now shorter than all of his younger brothers.”

Damian grunted and crossed one leg over the other. “Have you made a decision on the charity ball? Regarding your escort?”

“Not yet. Figure I can wait till at least after I as a civilian am discovered,” I said.

“If it would help your decision, I would like to accompany you. I remember you always insisted I dance with you at least once per event, despite how small I was compared to you and how reluctant I was to dance.”

“I said it was good for you,” I recalled with a smile. “Told you that dancing would help you loosen up.”

“‘I am as loose as I am required to be,’ I believe is what I said in response.”

“Yeah.” I chuckled. “Okay. I’ll go. But you have to promise to dance with me.”

“I have improved since the last gala you attended,” he said.

“I'm sure you have,” I agreed.

He contemplated me for a moment. “I am not usually in the business of making promises, but this one I can fulfill. I promise to dance with you.”

I grinned widely. “Great! I look forward to it.”

“As do I.” Damian got up and moved to leave.

“Damian!” I said, reaching out and then letting my hand drop, not sure why I was reaching. Damian turned, eyebrows raised expectantly. I glanced down at the gentle-but-firmly wrapped bandages on my right hand. “Thanks for this.” I showed him the bandages as an indication of what I meant.

He ducked his head in a nod. “Of course, McCloud. Get some rest,” he said before leaving my room.

I sighed as he shut the door and flopped backward, my head hitting the pile of pillows.

Staring at the ceiling in the dark, I scrunched my eyebrows. Why was I feeling so…conflicted? Like, I wanted to go to the charity ball and I wouldn’t mind going with Damian, but I felt a certain reservation about the whole idea that I couldn’t pinpoint.

Was it the media attention I knew we’d get? I could already see the trashy tabloid headline in all caps and yellow letters: BRUCE WAYNE’S SON DATING BRUCE WAYNE’S WARD?! And sixteen clickbait Buzzfeed articles coming across my social media feeds. Was that it? Was I worried about dealing with that or putting Damian in that position? Much as I hated to admit it, Jason was right: the paparazzi and media had always loved me.

But that didn’t feel like the source of my internal struggle. If Damian didn’t want the media attention he wouldn’t have said he wanted to go with me. He would have told me to let Jason escort me—under an alias since he was technically still dead.

I crawled under the covers. I’d figure it out in the morning. Maybe I was just confused and conflicted because I was tired after a long and difficult patrol.

Burrowing into my bed on my side, I rubbed my right-hand knuckles with my left palm, still feeling Damian’s warm, callused hand holding mine as he gently bandaged my bleeding knuckles. His touch was kinder, softer, and gentler than I’d ever felt it. Damian had never really had the word “soft” in his behavioral vocabulary when I knew him as a thirteen-year-old.

I liked it. Damian as an adult had loosened up a little and unwound. It was nice. Especially when I was eight years ahead of where I should have been and a heck-of-a-lot more scared than I was willing to admit out loud. Almost a decade was plenty enough time for things to change—for the better, for the worst, for the crazier—and I was thrown in the deep end. I didn’t even know who the president was anymore. Having Damian show me a little bit more heart when I was doing my best to hide how freaked out I felt was comforting.

I drifted off to sleep.

^^^^^

@RealSuperman: “Welcome back, @CloudburstofGotham! Good to see you’re back! You were sorely missed! #CloudburstsBack”

@WonderWomanOfficial: “The world welcomes the return of the great hero of Gotham, Cloudburst. #CloudburstsBack @CloudburstofGotham”

@RealArsenal: “Yo! Cloudburst! You’re back! Stop by Star City sometime and catch up, yeah? @CloudburstofGotham #CloudburstsBack”

@OfficialOutlawHood: “Huge welcome home to my favorite member of the Bat-family! @CloudburstofGotham has returned! #CloudburstsBack !”

@NightwingOFCL: “#CloudburstsBack! We missed you so much, @CloudburstofGotham! So happy you’re home! Love you, sister!”

@OfficialNewBatman: “@CloudburstofGotham, Warm salutations.”

@OfficialOutlawHood, replying to @OfficialNewBatman: “Dude, seriously? That’s the best you can do?”

@OfficialNewBatman, replying to @OfficialOutlawHood: “I have welcomed Cloudburst in person. I am acknowledging her return online for the sake of expectations.”

@OriginalBatman, replying to @OfficialNewBatman, @OfficialOutlawHood: “Boys, behave.”

@RedRobinVigilante: “ICYMI: #CloudburstsBack! My ‘sister’ has recently returned after having been missing for 8 years! Super excited! I missed you so much, @CloudburstofGotham!”

@ClarkKentDP: “@CloudburstofGotham would you like to do an exclusive interview for the Daily Planet? Tell everyone where you were and why you’re back? DM me if you’re interested! #CloudburstsBack”

@GGVickiVale: “@CloudburstofGotham How about an interview with the Gotham Gazette now that #CloudburstsBack?”

Damian scrolled through the top hits in the #CloudburstsBack trend over breakfast, sipping his breakfast tea and munching on an apple for starters. He was grateful for the attention being on Cloudburst because, in five days, Nora McCloud would return from being lost in the time stream. She’d be bruised and exhausted in torn clothing. McCloud had already agreed to get no sleep for a night or two beforehand and let her bruises from patrol show without bothering to hide them before turning up at the Gotham PD station.

And as long as Cloudburst had been established as being back first, no one would have to know that she and McCloud were the same person. Damian took another sip of his tea thoughtfully, scrolling down. He came across another Tweet that he hadn’t seen before.

It was Cloudburst’s own. A photo of she and Damian jumping off the edge of the building, Damian’s coat flaring out around him and her hair doing the same, and another one of the moment before, when they were both standing on the edge of the building, showing off how much taller than Cloudburst Damian had grown. In both pictures, their backs were to the camera.

The caption read, “Last time I saw Batman he was still Robin and more than half a foot shorter than me! What else did I miss? XD #CloudburstsBack @OfficialNewBatman” and a second Tweet that said, “Photo creds to @RedRobinVigilante! I missed you too, brother!”

Damian “liked” and “retweeted” it saying, “We will catch you up.” On his official Batman account.

Tim stumbled into the kitchen, tablet in his hand playing the local news’ livestream.

“—top story this morning is the return of the Gotham vigilante known as Cloudburst. The vigilante was last seen eight years ago when the android fleet known as the Time Bombs attacked for the first time. Since then there has been no trace of her until last night when she posted this image to Instagram and Twitter with the caption, ‘It’s good to be home. Hashtag-Cloudburst’s Back.’ The post quickly went viral and several citizens of Gotham Tweeted about sightings of her with the other members of the team of Gotham protectors commonly nicknamed the Bat-Family. She was seen with the younger Batman for most of the night, according to most sightings. She has yet to release an official statement about where she’s been, but we’re grateful to have a familiar pair of eyes watching our streets,” the lady was saying.

Tim sat at the breakfast bar and started to munch distractedly on a bagel, not even realizing it. Damian could have put a rotten tomato in its place and Tim probably wouldn’t even notice. He was too focused on his tablet. “They’re wrong,” he muttered. “The Time Bombs didn’t attack for the first time back then. It just seemed like that since they jumped back in time. Their first attack was now because they were made now…”

Damian didn’t say anything, just continued to eat his apple and look through the social media feed.

Next

[shirlleycoyle]

This Meme Explains Why TikTok Isn’t Like Any Other Social Media

People think that TikTok is a black hole where teens jump in and memes pop out. To be sure, TikTok has both teens and memes. But the reality is much more structured than it seems.

TikTok is dominated by videos with a very rigid, formulaic structure: a song, a dance. “You Need to Calm Down” by Taylor Swift plays, and the person sets up a social scenario that ends with them lip-synching “You need to calm down, you’re being too loud.”

Most of TikTok is like Mad Libs: the specifics of the joke differ, but the punchline is always the same. At any given moment, there’s maybe five to ten sound bites—which could be songs, or original audio recorded by users—that are accumulating the majority of the views, sometimes hundreds of thousands in just hours.

Enter TikTok’s latest genre: point-of-view videos, or POVs. They create scenarios that range from horror, to historical fiction, to teenage fantasies, to the completely absurd. These videos often have little in common aside from the significant role that they assign to the viewer.

The traditional TikTok POV is shot from a first-person perspective, making the viewers the main character of the video. TikToker @porrinate, who identified himself as Adam, told Motherboard, “I think it makes it very personal to the viewer, because the video is through their eyes.”

Adam made a POV captioned “#pov you dont have a lunch at school and i offer you my entire lunch because i want you to be okay.” In this video, the viewer is a student that doesn’t have lunch. Adam speaks directly to them.

“I took it from my own experience, which was like, I didn’t get to eat that much in high school—and if I did, it was from somebody else,” Adam said. “So I would always feel like, people need to be more generous, especially towards those who are really struggling.”

The structure of an app helps decide what kind of posts are more likely to succeed. On Twitter, a blank slate of 280 characters, it’s attention-grabbing, ratio-inviting shit posts. On YouTube, where ad revenue can be low or unreliable, it’s lengthy, vlogger-style videos that are cheap to produce.

Meanwhile, TikTok encourages recycling sound bites which are used by sometimes thousands of videos. This has spawned a culture where people use familiar joke formats, and gently add a little bit of themselves.

By making viewers a part of the video, POVs uniquely allow creators to engage with viewers, and by extension, connect with their peers. POVs leverage TikTok to appeal to shared human experiences of joy, despair, embarrassment, and laughter. For now, at least, it’s something that sets TikTok apart from other social media apps.

Why POVs Could Only Happen on TikTok

People can post videos on Twitter or Facebook, but since users only see content from users they follow, those videos have a limited ability to spread. People who aren’t following you, most often, will simply miss the video you share. TikTok is different because of the app’s For You page, which pushes users to view videos from wide-reaching pool of users (even ones that you don’t follow).

The For You page surfaces posts from across the platform. It’s an algorithmically-generated recommendation feed, catered to each user. Unlike Twitter’s Moments tab or Instagram’s Discover page, which also surface posts from users you don’t follow, the For You opens automatically when a user launches the app. But we don’t know the specifics of how the For You page works. According to TikTok’s listing in the iOS App Store, some opaque mix of app engagementlikes, shares, and comments—dictates what users see.

Most TikToks only have 15 seconds to engage a viewer and maximize their reach on people’s For You pages. That’s a large part of why POVs are successful: they grab the viewer’s attention by pulling them into the plot of the video. The impact is immediate.

“Across different platforms, you think of the different types of cultures that have emerged,” Becca Lewis, an internet culture researcher with Data and Society, said in a phone call. “A lot of that is due to these artificial constraints platforms place on the type of content that gets created.”

The opacity of the For You algorithm has a huge impact on TikTok. If you’re trying to make a popular video, it makes sense to stick to one of the Mad Libs formulas that dominate the For You page on a given day. It’s the act of reaching for the biggest-common-content-denominator in a vast pool of videos whose logic you can’t see.

Here are some memes that are popular at the time of writing:

“Wasabi” by Little Mix plays and people lip sync the lyrics while using TikTok’s “face-tracking” filter, which identifies and zooms in on your face.

“One Jump Ahead” from Aladdin plays and people lip sync the line “Let’s not be too hasty,” and the reply “Still I think he’s rather tasty,” usually while the user pretends to be two different characters.

“No Reason” by YunggTez plays and people act out a situation in which they convey confidence, attitude, and a lack of regard for others.

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, said in a phone call that users won’t make a habit out of an app unless there’s a “variable reward”—or, a variety of entertaining content. Without that variety, users get bored.

“The problem I think that TikTok is struggling with is that they depend on the meme model,” Eyal said. “Because if everybody does the meme the same way, what happens to the variability? It becomes predictable. The predictability makes it boring. Nobody wants to see the meme because they already saw it.”

But POVs are anything but predictable. Instead of appealing to a common meme formula, POVs appeal to a common humanity. They put the viewer into the messy center of an emotional situation.

Take this TikTok by Olivia Giordano, for example. The caption is, “there’s not enough seats at the lunch table today, so you have nowhere to sit.” In this video, the viewer is the person who can’t get a seat at the lunch table. It’s like exposure therapy, violently bringing viewers face-to-face with the shame, humiliation, and sadness of living through this particular situation. But the viewer experiences these feelings in a safe setting: TikTok.

A similar video is captioned, “ur teacher lets u pick partners but u have 2 friends in ur class who partnered up.” In this video, you’re watching yourself try to team up with a friend for a group project, but quickly realize that your friends both chose one another before you.

By acknowledging that these uncomfortable experiences exist, these POV videos lend significance to experiences that young people often have to dismiss in order to get by.

A lot of POVs focus on acting out a true-to-reality situation. For instance, TikTok user @yazdemand made a POV captioned, “#pov your my mirror after My family say that ‘you will always be a boy.’” Viewers watch the private, vulnerable moments of this teenager getting ready. There’s a tension, and you can feel her confidence and apprehension playing out simultaneously. People going through a similar situation can find community.

A Yeet into the Spectrum of POVs

Not all POVs are exposure therapy for the cruelty of being a teenager, or heartfelt experience confessionals. A pillar of the POV genre is the massive selection of videos that rely on humor and sometimes absurdity.

A great example of this is a TikTok captioned, “i’m ur dumb jock crush. you tell me you’re feeling depressed. i try to make it better.” In it, user @idrinkvapejuice acts out the crush’s reply to her admission of depression.

Other videos, like “POV: what my birth control sees when i remember i have to take it” and “POV: im checking ur head for lice (and u have it)” are pretty self explanatory. There’s also videos like “Pov. our eyes meet at the Area 51 raid” (which is a poking fun at a POV formula that starts with “our eyes meet”).

But the POV genre, and TikTok in general, isn’t immune to harassment and hate speech problems that plague social media. Jess Fisher, TikTok user @jess.fisher5 has a recurring TikTok series where she pretends to be the personification of each astrological sign. In her POV video, captioned “#wholesome TAURUS POV,” Fisher acts like the personification of Tauruses, who are generally defined as compassionate, loyal, and sometimes parental.

Fisher said that this POV got an unexpected response: a flood of duets—or new videos that are displayed directly alongside an original video—and comments from old men.

“Not all of them, but a lot of [the comments] were like, ‘I’m gonna rip that shirt off of you,’ and things like that,” Fisher said.

The duets for Fisher’s video exist in a grey area: most of them don’t violate TikTok’s terms of use. It’s not against the rules to duet a video with a suggestive smile and comment. But the response was somewhat violating, she said. (A TikTok spokesperson encouraged users to visit its Safety Center for information about responding to misuse.)

“[The video] did make me think that maybe POV just strikes a chord in people,” Fisher said. “It hits them in a different way than normal videos do.”

POVs Make TikTok Feel Human

Fisher said that POVs make sense in the larger history of TikTok. TikTok, in its original form, was called musical.ly, and musical.ly was dedicated almost entirely to lip-sync videos. Fisher said that the foundation of these lip-sync videos probably lent itself to the creation of the POV genre.

“They could just be lip synching a song with intention, but it’s also like making the viewer feel like they’re being looked at, or being seen,” Fisher said. “The only difference between that type of thing and the POV genre is putting their own dialogue to it and writing it themselves. Like content creation rather than just lip synch.”

Platforms like Facebook often talk about how they want to “bring the world closer together.” But this isn’t easy for any social media platform to accomplish. Often, it seems, meaningful online experiences are built on finding communities with shared experiences.

This is what’s happened with POVs on TikTok. There’s countless different iterations of POVs: there’s humor, fiction, cosplay, fantasy, historical skits, and realistic ones, and there’s innumerable niches that have grown out of these subgroups.

This phenomenon seems to defy the odds: the TikTok For You page, in its seeming randomness, connects people with obscure mutual experiences. The result is something that feels fundamentally human.

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