From the first-person perspective to the widespread meme
The acronym POV means ‘ Point of View ‘, which translates as ‘point of view’. Basically, a video cataloged as POV means that you will see a first-person perspective in it.
This perspective does not originate from TikTok. In cinema, this same concept is known as ‘ primary internal secularization ‘. The technique allows us to see an image directly from the eyes of a character. It is often used a lot to show drunkenness, for example.
On TikTok, the POV perspective is used for almost everything. It began to be used a lot in sports videos, specifically in risky activities such as skydiving, climbing, or motor racing. Today, users of this social network use small action cameras that allow this technique to be used for almost any activity. It is not unreasonable that you find a recipe on TikTok made from the point of view of the cook himself, a craft with the camera on as if you were the artist, or even a humorous video in which a conversation is shown using the POV.
In addition, this technique gives a lot of play to creativity. Some people have put a camera on a pet, or even a robot vacuum cleaner to make a different video or even personify some kind of inert object thanks to this perspective. What Does POV Mean on TikTok
Using POV as a meme
You may have come this far and your question has not been resolved. This is because many users use this acronym to give information about a context before making a joke. In this case, the initials mean exactly the same as in the previous case, but the word is now used to inform you from what point of view you must imagine to understand the joke.
This type of meme is present in practically all social networks in which there are young users. On Twitter, it is usually published by writing a line of text and attaching a photo or video. In TikTok and Instagram Reels, a line of text is usually added inside the video to be able to read the message without having to access the comment box.
That being said, be careful when searching for memes with the word ‘POV’. If you do it on Google Images, you’ll have almost no problems, but if you do it on Twitter and you have the filter disabled, you’re still in for a surprise. As you can imagine, the word is not only used with good intentions, so do not search with this term in public if you do not want to have to do a lot of explaining.