Twitter announced their newest social media endeavor, Vine, at the end of January, which allows users to share six-second video clips, including sound, with other users. Perhaps most comparable to the concept and layout of Instagram, Vine adds a new visual element to our online presence.
At the moment, Vine is purely application-based, meaning it only operates on iPhone 3GS and higher and on iPod Touch with Wi-Fi. However, you can share your video clips on Twitter or Facebook, which will allow for viewing on a computer. Vine will post a short link on your behalf, sending the viewer to a Vine page that hosts only the video.
There are a few ways to go about recording videos on Vine. The first is to record without pause for six seconds. The other option is to record a series of shots that Vine will string together into a continuous, looping video. A simple concept and an eye for design can create a choppy yet delightfully quirky clip. This method creates the most visually appealing effect, as it allows for greater subject movement and the video editing is incredibly simple. Recording numerous clips distorts the sound element of Vine, however.
Vine uses the same hash tag and trending ideas as Twitter, promoting a community within the application so it's easy to find other videos and users. Just as Facebook and Instagram, there are the "like" and comment options as well. Users can find friends to follow through their device's phone book, people they follow on Twitter and Facebook friends if those accounts are connected.
A number of well-established brands and figures are on Vine, but don't regularly post videos. NBC News posted their first of only two videos 20 days ago. MTV currently has no posts. The fashion industry, however, is a different story. Lucky Magazine has posted 61 videos, many of them dealing with this week's fashion week in New York City.
Aside from the obvious differences between Vine and Twitter-video and text-Vine allows for a lot of creativity. From drawings that seem float around the page to building a scene with Legos, stringing quick clips together into six seconds is creating a new social canvas.
The concept of Vine and videos as social media is intriguing. It's where the invisible cultural and technological arrows are pointing. But can it be incorporated into a daily social media habit like Twitter and Instagram? While Vine insists that making a short clip is easy, it does take more effort than a simple picture or 140-character tweet.
While I love the concept of Vine, it's hard to imagine it becoming the new Twitter or Instagram. Life as a student does have its exciting moments, but it seems there are few things I want to display six seconds of online. Auburn is beautiful, but posting a quick clip of the campus? I'd rather put a single picture on Instagram. Perhaps I'm behind the times.
Social media has, in the last decade, played a huge role in shaping how we interact with others and gain our information. We've created a special language, social media jargon, that's often indecipherable to those too far outside our generation. "Did you see what she tweeted at me?" "Did that status show up in your newsfeed?" "I'm trying to get my name trending." "Why did so many people like that picture?" They're verbs: Tweeting, Facebooking, Instagramming, and now the newly coined Vining. While not all of these words show up in a classic dictionary, they are certainly a large part of our daily vocabulary.
Can video be the next big thing? Social media has progressed platform by platform. First Myspace, then Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more-from personal profiles to quick thoughts to pictures. Video is the next logical step. Will it catch on like the growing wildfire that is Twitter?
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