Benedict Townsend

That magical, ephemeral quality that's since been dubbed Vine energy. With more users than ever before and a place securely in the mainstream, Vine content hit its second wave. The evolution came in part alongside subtle design and interface changes, like the introduction of an upload function.

That magical, ephemeral quality that's since been dubbed Vine energy. With more users than ever before and a place securely in the mainstream, Vine content hit its second wave. The evolution came in part alongside subtle design and interface changes, like the introduction of an upload function.

Now videos no longer had to be captured directly in the app, but could be created externally and then loaded in. This opened up a whole new world of creativity, don't get me wrong, but it also traded off a lot of the spontaneity that had made the app a success in the first place.

Now videos no longer had to be captured directly in the app, but could be created externally and then loaded in. This opened up a whole new world of creativity, don't get me wrong, but it also traded off a lot of the spontaneity that had made the app a success in the first place.

then once you could start to upload videos to vine the nature of what was going viral there changed a little bit it became a little more high concept and that's when you get like the real we now say like oh this tiktok has vine energy that's what we're talking about people who are doing sort of absurd skits weird art projects that are like really funny but in a really short way and it'll cut like right at the right moment i have

then once you could start to upload videos to vine the nature of what was going viral there changed a little bit it became a little more high concept and that's when you get like the real we now say like oh this tiktok has vine energy that's what we're talking about people who are doing sort of absurd skits weird art projects that are like really funny but in a really short way and it'll cut like right at the right moment i have

a million examples of this sort of thing. Describing them out loud always sounds like describing a dream. It doesn't really make a lot of sense. But there's one really good series that I loved, which was this guy, he's outside of his apartment. There's a woman up at the window on the second floor and he's like, toss me my keys. And then she throws a printer.

a million examples of this sort of thing. Describing them out loud always sounds like describing a dream. It doesn't really make a lot of sense. But there's one really good series that I loved, which was this guy, he's outside of his apartment. There's a woman up at the window on the second floor and he's like, toss me my keys. And then she throws a printer.

And the printer just smashes on the ground next to him. And he's like, I said my keys.

And the printer just smashes on the ground next to him. And he's like, I said my keys.

Why the fuck would I say printer? And like, that's the whole video. And that's sort of what I would describe as like maybe the, the, the secondary wave of vine humor. which was sort of happening in tandem with the more organized influencers. And I think you could almost view it as sort of a reaction to it, which we kind of see on other video platforms.

Why the fuck would I say printer? And like, that's the whole video. And that's sort of what I would describe as like maybe the, the, the secondary wave of vine humor. which was sort of happening in tandem with the more organized influencers. And I think you could almost view it as sort of a reaction to it, which we kind of see on other video platforms.

As one half of the video platform gets really standardized, the other half gets really chaotic.

As one half of the video platform gets really standardized, the other half gets really chaotic.

We're seeing that with TikTok right now. It all felt like a party. And what party is complete without a multinational corporation? We also started to see brands on Vine.

We're seeing that with TikTok right now. It all felt like a party. And what party is complete without a multinational corporation? We also started to see brands on Vine.

which is kind of your dead giveaway that your social network has blown up. So we started to see really bad, weird advertisements being made as Vines, which I remember just thinking were insane looking, but they tried.

which is kind of your dead giveaway that your social network has blown up. So we started to see really bad, weird advertisements being made as Vines, which I remember just thinking were insane looking, but they tried.

The brand deals on Vine were weird and ineffective, but they were the first step towards refining the online ad ecosystem that dominates the world today. The same ecosystem that saw a platform like Meta make $69 billion in digital advertising in 2023 alone.

The brand deals on Vine were weird and ineffective, but they were the first step towards refining the online ad ecosystem that dominates the world today. The same ecosystem that saw a platform like Meta make $69 billion in digital advertising in 2023 alone.