Why POV Content Feels So Personal?

Social media used to show other people’s lives. Now, more often, we see content that asks us to step inside them. You can come across thousands of videos shot with a camera held at eye level or memes that start with “POV.” POV culture refers to the explosion of first‑person, point‑of‑view formats (POV videos, memes, commentaries) that make us feel we are inside someone else’s experience. POV culture reflects a change in how people relate to stories, emotions, and each other on social media platforms. Instead of watching content from a distance, we are invited to the content creators’ experience. But strangely, you are not invited to their moment, but yours, through them. As a result, a few seconds of POV videos can feel personal and relatable. This is because POV memes and short videos compress stories into brief, emotionally charged scenes that you mentally fill in. And moreover, this kind of storytelling turns personal moments into some kind of shared cultural moments. Because when you review the comments, you can see other people relate as well. In this therapy sketch, we will explore how the first-person narrative videos or POV contents in social media affects us.

Why POV-style videos resonate emotionally?

POV memes are brief stories that depend on shared relatable content and cultural understanding. They transform personal experiences into shared moments and invite individuals to view similar experiences from different perspectives. This format makes you resonate with content emotionally because it reduces the distance between you and the experience itself. When you watch a POV video and relate to it emotionally, here are the mechanisms that work underneath:

Social presence

POV contents feel relatable because they are created with a social presence in the first place. First-person camera angles pull you closer than third-person views. Watching a short video and seeing content through someone else’s eyes increases immersion. You can experience it like the interaction feels more real, almost as if there is an actual person on the other side rather than a piece of content. This heightened social presence strengthens identification with the person in the video and makes the experience more engaging for you.

Perspective‑taking

POV narratives (regardless of the format) also support perspective-taking. Research shows that first-person storytelling is more effective than third-person narratives in evoking emotional engagement. It is like reading “I missed the bus” instead of “they missed the bus.” The difference is that the moment feels closer and more familiar, like it is your experience directly. A recent study showed that content that appears to be “talking to you” tends to receive more likes, comments, and shares in TikTok. This type of narrative makes you feel personally included rather than passively watching from the outside. The result is content that feels less like observation and more like participation.

Why is sharing POV style content appealing?

Another question is why we are sharing our experiences in this format, thinking that some POV content can include highly personal information. Eventhough there is no direct study about the POV format, there are study in the literature that explores why we overshare in online platforms:

Social validation: Oversharing personal content in social media is linked to the need for recognition and social media addiction. A study conducted in 2022 found that adolescents who are in need of recognition and engagement tend to disclose more than is safe (Shabahang et al., 2022).
Belonging and support: Seeing others disclose encourages reciprocity. People share more to fit in and gain social support, especially in groups that feel intimate or supportive (Dupuis et al., 2024).
Emotional release: Many social media users share personal memories and experiences as a way to vent and seek comfort (Stone et al., 2022).
Platform design: Likes, comments, and easy posting tools lead social media users to overshare to build a strong digital presence and avoid fear of missing out (FOMO).

The risk of oversharing on social media?

Although sharing personal content on social media can be appealing, it’s important to also be aware of some potential risks, including negative impact on mental health and some security threats.

Mental health: Oversharing is associated with anxiety, emotional stress, reduced self‑confidence, and greater exposure to cyberbullying (Susilo et al., 2025).
Security threats: Sharing detailed personal information online can also create concrete safety risks. Posts that include routines, locations, personal struggles, or identifying details make users more vulnerable to phishing attempts, password guessing, identity fraud, and stalking (Dupuis et al., 2025).

Protective strategies for emotional safety.

Emotional safety online is less about quitting platforms and more about how you use them and how you talk to yourself while you’re there. Research points to a set of skills such as cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness & check in with feelings, seeking genuine social support, and self-compassion after triggers can buffer many of social media’s harms.

Cognitive Reappraisal: Cognitive reappraisal is a skill that helps us reinterpret a situation in a more balanced way. When scrolling POV content, it is important to remind yourself that what you see in that content is partial and often says more about the context than about you.
Mindfulness & Check in with feelings: By using mindfulness, you can detect how your body and emotions react while you are exposed to POV content on social media. You can briefly check in with feelings, and it can help you pause and reflect on your experience independently.
Seeking social support: Reaching out to people you love can help reduce loneliness and strengthen emotional resilience
Self-compassion after triggers: Self-compassion means responding to yourself with kindness after feeling triggered by comparison, criticism, or negative feedback from social media. Higher self-compassion is linked to lower levels of depression, anxiety, appearance dissatisfaction, and self-criticism, and it can buffer the negative impact of social media (Lia et al., 2025).

Takeaways:

POV culture refers to the explosion of first‑person, point‑of‑view formats (POV videos, memes, commentaries) that make us feel we are inside someone else’s experience.
POV narratives social presence and support perspective-taking.
The reasons POV narratives are so popular and widely shared by most users are that they provide social validation, belonging, and support, as well as emotional release. Also, platform design supports this by building a strong digital presence.
Although sharing personal content on social media can be appealing, it’s important to also be aware of some potential risks, including negative impact on mental health and some security threats.
Research points to a set of skills such as cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness & check in with feelings, seeking genuine social support, and self-compassion after triggers can buffer many of social media’s harms.

References:

Malik, N., Ramzan, M., Malik, Z., & Tariq, I. (2025). The Rise of Reels: Analyzing the Communicative Power of Short-Form Videos on Social Media. Qlantic Journal of Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.55737/qjss.vi-ii.25350.
Wang, Y. (2020). Humor and camera view on mobile short-form video apps influence user experience and technology-adoption intent, an example of TikTok (DouYin). Comput. Hum. Behav., 110, 106373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106373.
Liu, L., Lu, S., Guo, Y., Huang, Q., Yi, X., & Zhang, J. (2024). Analysis of the Impact on Immersive Experience: Narrative Effects in First and Third Person Perspectives. , 78-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61359-3_7.
Chen, M., & Bell, R. (2021). A meta-analysis of the impact of point of view on narrative processing and persuasion in health messaging. Psychology & Health, 37, 545 – 562. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2021.1894331.
Shabahang, R., Shim, H., Aruguete, M., & Zsila, Á. (2022). Oversharing on Social Media: Anxiety, Attention-Seeking, and Social Media Addiction Predict the Breadth and Depth of Sharing. Psychological Reports, 127, 513 – 530. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221122861.
Shabahang, R., Shim, H., Aruguete, M., & Zsila, Á. (2022). Oversharing on Social Media: Anxiety, Attention-Seeking, and Social Media Addiction Predict the Breadth and Depth of Sharing. Psychological Reports, 127, 513 – 530. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221122861.
Dupuis, M., Powell, B., Lanphere, M., Duarte, M., & Hao, B. (2024). An Exploration of Factors Influencing Oversharing on Facebook Groups. Journal of The Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. https://doi.org/10.53735/cisse.v11i1.178.
Stone, C., Guan, L., LaBarbera, G., Ceren, M., Garcia, B., Huie, K., Stump, C., & Wang, Q. (2022). Why do people share memories online? An examination of the motives and characteristics of social media users. Memory, 30, 450 – 464. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2022.2040534.
Cai, Y., Kamarudin, S., & Nujaimi, S. (2025). Willingness to share information on social media: a systematic literature review (2020–2024). Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1567506.
Susilo, M., Prayudi, P., & Florestiyanto, M. (2025). Oversharing Behavior in Gen Z on Social Media. SHS Web of Conferences. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202521204022.
Lia, F., & , I. (2025). Emotion Regulation in Adolescents in the Digital Era in the Context of Social Media and Mental Health: A Systematic Review. In Trend : International Journal of Trends in Global Psychological Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.62260/intrend.v2i3.493.

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