Outside, summer vacation is in full swing. In offices, it’s the slow season. People spend the hot days lazing around. They lie by the water, phone in hand, scrolling aimlessly. They’re looking for entertainment. But a tired brain can’t find peace.

That’s because every other video on TikTok has a giant “POV” sign screaming at them. The user clicks. But the content has nothing to do with any point of view. Similar clichés are flooding the internet today. Annoying tricks by creators are spreading like wildfire. Why do creators feel the need to cram meaningless acronyms into their captions? And what other trends are really getting on the nerves of summer viewers?

When a Film Term Becomes an Empty Phrase

The acronym POV (Point of View) was originally coined to describe shots in which the viewer sees a scene directly through the eyes of the main character. When used correctly, POV draws you into the story. You experience a morning stroll through Paris or a tense situation at school from a first-person perspective.

Today, however, everything is different. The acronym has mutated into a parasitic word. Creators commonly write “POV: You’re at the movie theater,” but the video actually shows them sitting in a seat eating popcorn. So the viewer isn’t seeing the situation through their own eyes, but is watching someone else.

In HR and Employer Branding, this bad habit would look like this: A video is posted on the company’s profile with the caption “POV: When your boss approves working from home,” but instead of the employee’s perspective, all you see is a HR manager dancing at her desk.

Logic has taken a hit, but the creators don’t care. Why do they do this?

1. The Three-Second Rule: Users scroll at lightning speed. The abbreviation “POV” acts as an instant stop sign for the brain and a signal: “Watch out—there’s a scene playing out here; imagine yourself in this situation.”
2. Algorithmic pressure: The term “POV” is among the most searched-for on these platforms. If the creator doesn’t put it at the beginning of the text, the algorithm will happily bury their video.

But POV is just the tip of the iceberg. The world of vertical videos today suffers from several other syndromes that test viewers’ patience.

False Promises and Stalling

The effort to keep viewers glued to the screen at all costs has led to the creation of what’s known as “engagement bait.” You’ve surely seen it: a video with a huge caption that says “Wait until the end” or “The ending will blow your mind.” In nine out of ten cases, absolutely nothing interesting happens at the end.

In HR marketing, this bad habit would look like this: A recruitment video teases viewers with the line “Wait until the end to see our biggest company perk.” And the promised “big reveal” turns out to be nothing more than a standard coffee maker in the break room.

Another common pitfall is chopping up mundane stories. A story that could be told in forty seconds is artificially stretched out by the creators, who cut it off mid-sentence with the prompt: “Follow me for Part 2.”

An example from recruitment practice: The creators break up an employee’s career story and cut the video right at the best part: “Follow our profile for Part 2, where we’ll reveal how this candidate’s interview turned out.” The goal is simple: to drive people to the profile and artificially double the number of views, even if it tends to frustrate users.

Silent Parasites and Emotionless Robots

Creativity is taking a beating even when it comes to video formats. “Dead” reaction videos have become a symbol of laziness. Half the screen is taken up by someone else’s original content, and the other half by the face of the “creator,” who doesn’t say a single word throughout the entire video. They just nod their head, occasionally point their finger upward, or pretend to burst into laughter at someone else’s joke.

If the creator happens to want to speak but is too shy, they often let a monotonous AI synthesizer do the talking for them. An artificially cheerful robotic voice reads text off the screen, which reliably kills any sense of authenticity.

An example from a corporate setting: A robotic AI voice reads a text about how the company culture is human and friendly. It comes across as completely out of place. And as if that weren’t enough, stolen visuals are now inserted beneath any text—most often screenshots from mobile games that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic but are meant to keep your eyes occupied.

Deliberate Mistakes as a Trap for Comments

The creators’ desperation over low reach is perfectly illustrated by the trend of feigned grammatical errors. The author deliberately includes a glaring mistake in the headline. Why? Because they know that the comments section will immediately be flooded with hundreds of messages from people who want to smugly lecture and correct them.

In HR, this practice would look like this: Creators deliberately slip the phrase “We’re looking for a colleague who loves challenges, and we love hYm” into a job posting. To the algorithm, a comment is just a comment; thanks to the wave of corrective reactions, it will rate the video as extremely successful and send it to more people. The fact that the company is risking its reputation as a reputable employer is secondary in the pursuit of numbers.

Social media has found itself in a trap. Creators would rather bend logic, make fools of themselves, and use annoying clichés than risk their video getting lost in the feed. The question remains: how much longer will viewers find this entertaining before they finally give up on this homogenized and toxic content?

The Algorithm’s Trap, or Loyalty to Your Own Brand?

Every creator, HR professional, and marketer stands at a crossroads today. Will you succumb to cheap trends, rewrite headlines to fit the latest algorithmic clichés, and gain quick views—but at the cost of losing your integrity? Or will you bet on the long game, stay true to yourself, and remain faithful to your brand’s unique style?

Blindly copying standardized formats might fool a robot for a moment, but when it comes to people—whether they’re vacationers or potential candidates—genuine humanity and content that doesn’t try to be something it’s not wins out. The choice is yours.

For us, authentic communication is the clear winner.