We often tell you: TikTok is a platform where beauty is omnipresent. Useful for gathering advice, suggestions and knowing the effectiveness or usefulness of certain products, it is a real mine of information for those who are interested. But under the influence of bootokers who took part in the trend called silent review (silent review, in French), now even beautystas are starting to do the same thing. A phenomenon like the hashtag #silentmakeupreview currently garners over 9 million views on the platform. But what is a review of silence Exactly ?
Talking about a product… Without talking
The goal of silent reviews is recommending (or not) certain beauty products, books, bags or clothes without having to use words to do so. Skin or hair care, makeup, wellness products or beauty tools… There are all the viral and trending products of the moment. To send us the message, all means are good : a pouce in the air, a grimace, a satisfait air, the eyes here are revulsent, a faux réflexe vomitif… The TikTok users are très inventives to help us understand if the product in question has passed with brio the épreuve du stoplight. It must be said that we are made to understand this type of language, this is what Élodie Laye Mielczareck, a semiolinguist specializing in verbal and non-verbal communication, explains when interviewed by Marie Claire :
«Here we are faced with a ‘speaking’ silence: gestures and micro facial expressions take over. The body itself becomes a language. And it turns out in fact that Homo Sapiens is more sensitive to gestures, since they preceded words (more precisely the appearance of articulated language in our evolution).”
But if we understand it, is it really interesting to watch this type of content?
Silent reviews: an interest… questionable
Given that this type of content arouses great interest, we obviously ask ourselves whether the use of these videos really serves to get an idea about a product? The answer is obviously no.
In truth it must be understood that most of the products discussed here are already well known to the general public. And for good reason, these are viral products that all TikTok video consumers have already heard about multiple times. Therefore, it is not very useful that content creators have to explain their tastes since the products they talk about are already the focus of many videos about them.
But if their interest is questionable, this format appeals for a good reason, as Élodie Laye Mielczareck explains:
” THE silent reviews they correspond to a trend that satisfies both a practical need and a necessity: being able to be seen without headphones during transport, for example. And also to the expression of a social imaginary”.
It remains to be seen whether this type of content will last long or whether it will soon disappear into TikTok limbo…
What if the movie you were going to see tonight was a dump? Each week, Kalindi Ramphul gives you her opinion on which movie to see (or not) on the show The Only Opinion That Matters.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
