If Generation Z is to be believed, there is one telltale sign that reveals the age group of a person recording a video on the internet – the so-called millennial pause. This term was coined by @nisipisa, a YouTuber and TikToker from Boston, and it has caught on well in that young community. Young TikTokers refer to it as a creepy pause that, evidently, everyone over 25 cannot avoid before or during the recording of video content. It refers to the fact that a person, after pressing ‘record’, waits a split second to ensure that TikTok has indeed started recording. And that pause of a split second is evidently hilarious to kids who mock the way millennials do it before starting to record.
Technical Hangover
This pause could be explained by technical hangover because previous generations used and grew up with older technology that did not respond immediately like today’s social networks and platforms. It was still necessary to wait that second to ensure that the camera had started recording. Although millennials are used to documenting their lives with photographs, the millennial pause is an indicator of their discomfort when recording videos, unlike Generation Z, which navigates the video format perfectly.
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The telltale sign that reveals the age group of a person recording a video on the internet is called the ‘millennial pause’. It’s as if everyone over 25 – after pressing ‘record’ – waits a split second to be sure that TikTok has indeed started recording. And that pause of a split second is hilarious to kids.
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– The first three seconds are crucial on TikTok. Since the audience decides in those seconds whether the content is interesting or not, the problem of the so-called millennial pause arises. This is a term that describes millennials because they need a few moments to start speaking into the camera after it turns on. Gen Z, on the other hand, as soon as they press ‘record’, starts talking and presenting their topics. After they press record, millennials usually take a breath, prepare to speak, and only then begin – explains TikToker and TikTok mentor Dario Marčac, adding that he does not see it as a big problem as long as the content is authentic.
Authentic Content
All the TikTokers we spoke to cite authentic content as one of the most important aspects that their followers greatly appreciate.
– Today’s audience is no longer interested in photoshopped images and videos full of filters and perfect post-production; today, raw video is sought in which the audience can feel the creator’s energy and identify with them – says Marčac, adding that recently there has been an aversion to, let’s call it, artificial, photoshopped content that prevails on, for example, Instagram.
TikToker and owner of DD Studios Petar Kokalj says that Generation Z can instantly spot inauthentic and purely commercial content and that due to growing up with social networks, they are intolerant of anything that resembles an advertisement. Therefore, he believes that the key challenge is to tell your story authentically and non-invasively, showcase your product, and attract followers’ attention. It seems that it is still about advertisements and commercial content if the goal is to show (and sell) your product, but in a somewhat hidden or subliminal way. This leads to the conclusion that this younger generation prefers subliminal and ‘sneaky’ ads over those that hit the target directly. But this is not surprising since, as its members say, they grew up with social networks, where unmarked ads and covert advertising are at their peak.
Millennials and older individuals can sniff out that hidden advertising and their hair stands on end when influencers rave about a different product every day, when bottles of various products are randomly placed in the frame. We have gotten used to these tricks, so they no longer really work, but Generation Z sees authenticity in this way of selling stories.
New Communication
In fact, social networks are no longer aimed at millennials, Generation X, and boomers, so this form of communication is not surprising. Their target audience is precisely Generation Z. That is why platforms dominated by ‘oldies’, like Facebook or Instagram, are slowly being abandoned and moving away from photography as the most important content, racing towards becoming as similar to TikTok as possible and rooting video content.
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The younger generation seems to prefer subliminal and sneaky ads over those that hit the target directly. However, they grew up with social networks where covert advertising is at its peak.
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– TikTok has definitely changed the way young people consume content today, and the transformation accelerated with the COVID pandemic. Videos on that platform have changed the paradigm of communication in video format, and creators and brands that understood how to play that game have achieved excellent results. Those others, who lagged behind in the race, often complained and found reasons why TikTok is ‘just for kids’ or ‘a social network for dancing’, even though it has actually grown into something much more – emphasizes Kokalj.
‘Repackaged’ Copies
The fact that all other giants in the social media market are trying to compete with TikTok by copying its concepts with their own alternatives is proof: Instagram has Reels, YouTube has Shorts, and Snapchat has Spotlight. All of these are essentially repackaged copies of TikTok with slightly different user interfaces. In fact, we are witnessing that trends are born on TikTok and then copied to other platforms seven to fourteen days later. A recently conducted study revealed that young people use TikTok more frequently than Google search for browsing, which is a huge success for that platform. The same study also showed that Generation Z turns to that social network when looking for places they want to visit. For example, restaurant reviews on Google are less important to them than what a TikToker said about a particular restaurant.
Gap and Chill
Simply put, millennials must admit that they are no longer hot commodities on the internet. They were the first to dive into world wide web, the first to encounter social networks like MySpace, and they were the first cohort to watch their youth fade in real-time while glued to screens. They once ruled the internet, but that time is slowly coming to an end. Brands are no longer fighting for their favor online, nor are all the numerous algorithms of social networks. The internet has moved on, and millennials can either adapt or, like Generation X, which still listens to Pearl Jam, not care whether they look old because of their choices. As TikToker Nika Iličić advises, they should first stop being burdened by themselves.
– Relax and just start: start recording, posting, and creating content because you will regret not having done it earlier – advises Iličić.
None of this is necessarily bad; all generations have their joys, but there is nothing sadder than seeing someone in their forties desperately trying to adopt the mannerisms of a twenty-year-old on TikTok. That is a special kind of chill.
HOW TO PROPERLY RECORD: Recipe Against the Millennial Pause
Simply put, do not record a video in one go, advises TikTok mentor Dario Marča on how to avoid the millennial pause.
– Videos on TikTok are short-format content that gets to the point in the first second. You can avoid unnecessary pauses by breaking the video into sequences. When I record it, I mostly divide it into several parts: introduction, plot, climax, and resolution. I often record it with several pauses. This way, I avoid those unnecessary and overly long transitions to the core of the video – explains Marčac.
He also notes that in editing, parts with unnecessary pauses can be easily deleted.
TikToker Nika Iličić also says that today it is not a problem to record a video and edit it so that all the sighs, mumblings, and silences are cut out. It is really easy to learn and apply, she says. But she emphasizes:
– Stop worrying about whether you look good on camera, whether your wrinkles, pimples, or pores are visible. Nobody cares, that is, nobody normal cares. So the answer is: stop worrying and relax!
