Vine: The Short-Lived Short Video Format
The pandemic has brought a new spotlight onto technology and how it can bring us together. One of the most prominent platforms to benefit from people needing more entertainment is the popular video-sharing and creating app TikTok. TikTok experienced massive growth in 2020, gaining multitudes of new viewers and users throughout the year (The Verge) as people eventually succumbed to the platform’s constant stream of videos. I myself am an avid TikTok user, as the short format and various trends lend themselves to hilarious videos, and the algorithm is excellent at finding your niches and interests (not sure whether that should be considered creepy or not, but I digress). However, we must pay our respects to those who came before us. In Tiktok’s case, that would be Vine. Vine had a massive impact on social video sharing, as well as on an entire generation.
Vine was a popular video sharing/creating platform that was founded in 2012 by Colin Kroll, Rus Yusupov, and Dom Hofmann. The platform was purchased by Twitter in 2012 and was then officially launched (iNews). The app centered around the creation and sharing of videos-with a twist. There was a 6-second limit imposed on all videos. This kind of format was previously unprecedented, and while the limit seems restrictive, it actually became part of the app’s success.
People were pushed to their creative limits in order to make a successful and hilarious video within the time limit. This resulted in some of the funniest and outlandish videos ever created at the time. The time limit has carried on somewhat in spirit to TikTok, with some audios having a short time limit, however videos on TikTok can be as long as 60 seconds. Many jokes have been made about vine contributing to younger generations’ shorter attention spans, but the short time limit on these videos paved the way for many video sharing formats that we know today.
“My name is Jared, 19, and I never learned how to read”, “Hurricane Katrina, more like Hurricane Tortilla!” and “Road work ahead? Um, yeah I sure hope it does!” may sound like utter and complete nonsense to people of an older demographic, but to many people under 30, they are iconic quotes that we grew up with. Popular vine videos essentially became like another language for people of younger demographics. They were like inside jokes that an entire generation was in on. You can walk up to most people in my age group saying “Stop! I almost dropped my croissant” or “Miss Keisha? Miss Keisha?” and there’s likely a 95% chance they’ll know what you’re referencing. Celebrities even joined Vine, giving the platform even more credibility. Vines had a massive impact outside of the digital realm as well, even making it into mainstream pop culture, such as the “what are those?” vine being referenced in Marvel’s Black Panther. Yes, Black Panther. That’s a big deal!
Although it has been shuttered since 2017, Vine had a massive impact on both the digital landscape and the pop culture landscape. It paved the way for platforms such as TikTok, along with showing the staying power of social platforms and the impacts that they can have on younger generations.
