We at Spark Growth have shared many a moment with Vine that forever impacted our lives— from one man’s excitement over the inside of a watermelon, to cats doing what cats do best: acting like a-holes. Vine even contributed to significant cultural commentary like #carefreeblackkids2k16. It will be missed.
Vine knew that, no matter who and where internet users are, they all have one thing in common: a deep lack of attention span. The app enabled — nay, encouraged — the proliferation of 6 second clips that made us swoon, cry or fall out of our rolling office chairs with laughter. Vine created a community we love: brief and often hilarious; a perfect distraction in passing and an impeccable complement to Twitter’s 140 character limit. Both platforms challenged us to be as creative, funny or engaging as we could be – to tell a story – in little time and little space.
Vine invited us to communicate with video by making it accessible – it changed the way we thought about using our cell phone camera. Just like you didn’t have to be Ansel Adams to take and share a great photo, you no longer needed to channel Spielberg to create a compelling social video. And with no fancy editing skills required, Vine Celebrities were born, America’s Funniest Home Videos finally had competition, and we were able to be charmed by Michelle Obama herself. In 6 seconds! (Which, if you think about it, is probably all the time she could spare.)
Vine changed the game not only for itself and its parent company, but it also pushed Instagram to add a video feature, clocking in, at the time, at a relatively luxurious 15 seconds. Vine’s legacy will live on in other video creation platforms, like the seemingly immortal Snapchat. Vine, you sweet little creative go-getter, you enriched our lives so much.
This death came as a bit of a shock to us. Sure, we saw that video formats were getting longer, that users were now watching 15 and 20 minute videos on YouTube, that Instagram video had crept up to one minute in length, that live viewing via Periscope and Facebook Live had become the new hotness. It’s not that we didn’t see the signs, but it was a lot like seeing your friend with the sniffles on Friday, only to find them tragically lost to pneumonia on Monday.
With the sad news, we can’t help but wonder: Has Vine’s capricious cargo been cut free to save Twitter’s sinking ship? And if so, has that ship been righted, or will the infection prove to be an epidemic ? Will a follow up eulogy grace our blog pages in the near future? Only time will tell – probably more than 6 seconds. Until then…
Rest in Peace, Vine. You were loved.
