What Is The Millennial Pause? The Hidden Moment In Every Millennial's TikTok Explained

TikToker @nisipisa coined the term "the Millennial pause" in November 2021, and since then has been used by Zoomers in various videos either mocking or pointing out examples of the "Millennial pause" in many videos of the older generation on the internet.

But what is this so-called Millenial Pause? What does it mean? And how did it become a foolproof method to spot a Millennial?? Here's everything you need to know.

What Is The Millennial Pause?

Millennials are characterized by many things, and the 'Millennial Pause' is just another example of the many things that Zoomers use to describe them. It refers to the short pause that some Millennials take before starting to speak when taking videos of themselves after they hit Record. TikToker @nisipisa coined the term in November 2021, and it was used to describe most (if not all) videos of Millennials recording themselves.

The earliest example of a video showcasing the Millennial pause was posted on March 1st by user @victoriahammett on TikTok, captioned "POV: ur watching a millennial's tiktok" (seen below). The video description also read, "Like why do they pause so long before speaking babe hit record and GO."

How Did The Term Spread Online?

More videos started to appear online that mentioned the Millennial pause, one video in particular that gained traction was a TikTok stitch of a video made by Taylor Swift, where TikTok user @nisipisa points out the way Taylor pauses before speaking, and claims that it's something millennials do, writing in the description, "millennial pause (taylor’s version)" and officially coining the phrase (shown below).

Over the years, the term became much more popular, with entire articles being written about the pause on The Atlantic on August 6th, and Junkee on August 15th, 2022. One content creator by the name of Jade Beason on TikTok posted a video on September 6th, 2022, discussing her worries about the pause, and the paranoia she felt about how her content is perceived as a fellow millennial content creator (shown below).

How Is The Millennial Pause Used In Memes?

Following the term's rise to popularity from 2021-22, more examples of memes started to show up online. On January 18th, 2023, TikToker @homegirlzay posted a video suggesting that the Gen-Z equivalent to the Millennial pause is how they place their camera to record themselves, garnering over 1.9 million views in two days (shown below).

Another video posted by @kdsienk on the 12th of January, 2023 discusses how the very first iteration of the Millennial pause dates back to 2011 in the popular Zooey Deschanel show New Girl. The TikToker shows an example from one of the scenes in the show (shown below).

For the full history of the Millennial pause, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.