‘How it feels to…’
What is the ‘How it feels to…’ trend?
The creator holds their phone and shakes it slightly, looking concerned or overwhelmed, while a text overlay reads "How it feels to [situation]." Brands use it to name a small, specific frustration or delight their customer already feels, then let the product be the implied answer.
Origin
The "How it feels to..." format descends from the "How Life Feels When Drone Videos" trend documented by Know Your Meme, which originated on TikTok in November 2023. Early examples posted by TikTokers @guyminaj and @hammooddyyy paired aerial landscape footage with the caption template "How life feels when [X]," set to Coldplay's "Adventure of a Lifetime." In January 2024, MGMT's "Time to Pretend" became the dominant audio. A post by @digital.printfoot on January 18, 2024, accumulated millions of plays and cemented the template's spread. The phrase structure gradually detached from drone footage and was adopted across many video styles, including a selfie/shaking-phone reaction sub-format in which creators film themselves looking distressed and overlay text reading "How it feels to [relatable or absurd scenario]." No single creator has been identified as the originator of the selfie variant specifically. It spread organically as the caption template decoupled from its original drone-footage context.
Great for
Shaky handheld selfie video Close-up product b-roll as the "answer" cut On-the-go lifestyle footage
Examples
how it feels to realize you grabbed the wrong shade at checkout how it feels to forget your favorite lip product at home and have a full day of meetings how it feels to finally try the thing everyone has been talking about
Sources
Turn a trend into an on-brand short from footage you already have.
More trends
