Vine’s Significance in Digital History
Launched in 2013, Vine was a six-second looping video sharing app that become quite popular between 2013 and 2015 because it allowed creators to film, edit, and publish short videos. With the ability to create these short and quick videos and the different creative creators that came out of it, Vine has had a strong presence in digital history. The app was seen as something completely new in the social media world and gave users the opportunity to watch and create comical, creative, and light-hearted content. Although Vine’s fame quickly came to an end in 2017, the app still remains as relevant as ever.
Throughout the months of 2017, there were over 16 million tweets mentioning Vine. All these tweets ranged from mourning, disappointment, and reminiscing on the great content Vine brought it users. When the app died, the most iconic and relevant Vines circled the internet so users could relive the humorous content over and over again. Many of these videos have now been housed on YouTube, where you can see 10 to 15 minute compiled videos of the “most iconic” Vines. Vine still lives on today as people are constantly referencing Vine memes, jokes, and quotes on their social media captions or tweets.
Aside from its continuous relevance, Vine was a platform that created the next generation of celebrities such as Shawn Mendes, Lele Pons, and David Dobrik. Without this platform, some of these creators would have never acquired the fame they have today. Vine kick-started many of their careers which eventually led to their popularity on YouTube as the went on to create longer videos with the same “energy” as Vine. While others, like Shawn Mendes, went on to be famous Pop singers.
For me personally, Vine was one of my favorite forms of entertainment at the time of its fame. I came across Vine in high school and remember coming home from school and spending hours scrolling through the app solely because the content was something so funny and relatable to me. I even found myself creating my own Vine videos on my spare time. The videos themselves were short and to the point, which I believe is one of the main reasons the app became so popular. Many users, like myself, prefer the idea of six-second videos versus 20 minute videos on YouTube because it delivers fast, funny content in the matter of seconds.
Aside from Vine’s still prominent relevance in today’s world, it has a great significance in digital history. The reason for Vine’s downfall was that the app simply did not move quick enough to differentiate amongst other apps. In 2013, Instagram came in competition with Vine when it released the ability to post 15-second videos and soon after extended that time constraint to 60 seconds. The social media world was moving quickly, while Vine was staying at a stand-still. Today, these type short videos is something we see every day throughout all social platforms. TikTok exhibits a similar concept to Vine, but it is more modernized and consists of many more features than Vine ever had. YouTube became more popular in the post-Vine era as creators from Vine shifted over to YouTube to create similar content. Many of these platforms would have not gained the success they did if it was not for Vines fame. From 2013 to 2015, there was nowhere online like Vine and its significance will always have a strong presence in digital history.
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