Heard It Through the Grapevine

I’ve been struggling with what to discuss for my final blog post. I seem to have ran out of ideas and I cannot think of anything specific to discuss so I’m going to discuss one of my favorite forms of entertainment: Vines!

I’ve been a huge fan of Vines for the past year and a half now. I kind of got on the Vine train after the original app was already killed off (RIP to Vine, we will always remember), but Youtube compilations have allowed me to grow and nurture my Vine obsession so I’m grateful for that. I want to discuss Vines particularly now because everyone is on the TikTok hype and I want people to know, understand, and appreciate that Vine paved the way. TikTok is sitting on the shoulders of Vine and it needs to appreciate that!

Anyway, I’ve been (re)watching a lot of class Vine compilations again to pass time in quarantine and I want to discuss some of my favorite Vines, what makes Vine so great, and some of the ways I think it’s superior to TikTok. (And yes, obviously I’m biased, but who cares, this is my blog post.)

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So let’s start with some of my favorite Vines!

Cabbage Lettuce Vine

This vine is pure perfection. It has word play in it, so it’s cute. It has a vegetable in it, so you know it’s healthy. And it’s just straight up wholesome and adorable. One of my favorite Vines of all time.

Fuck It Up Kenneth (4 Part Series)

This Vine, at first viewing, may seem like a simple and beautiful Vine of Kenneth “fuck[ing] it up” as the narrator and filmer states. But if you look at it more closely, your realize these series of Vines tell a journey. A journey of Kenneth’s progression through high school, where at each point he stays true to himself and keeps “fuck[ing] it up.” We start with Kenneth getting ready to go to school, by looking in the surroundings we can extrapolate that it is Fall and it is perhaps him starting his senior year of high school. The next clip is of him going to Prom. This supports the hypothesis that this is his senior year, and we can see him looking fly af as he goes to Prom. The next clip is of him attending camp, and again he is still confident of himself and his identity and presenting as a happy young black boy getting ready to see what his next journey is in life. The final clip I think can be assumed that it is of Kenneth getting ready to go to college. You can hear the narrators voice cracking as he says good by to Kenneth but he is proud of the man Kenneth has become and is proud to see what he can accomplish in the future.

Now, I may be reading into the Vines. But regardless of this journey existing, this Vine is pretty fun to watch, and it may carry more depth than what might be initially perceived.

Happy 1 Year

This Vine just has such a beautiful twist to it. It sets up an expectation and shatters it. It’s simple yet elegantly beautiful.

Look At All Those Chickens!

This Vine is a great example of an educational Vine. This Viner is able to teach us about chickens. How they roam, how they flock, how they exist. Yes, she may be wrong, but are able to join her, as she explores and learns of the world, and what more could you want than that?

Wake Up

This constant desire to sleep I feel is very relatable in our quarantine time. The wise words of “it be like that sometimes” sums up this sentiment well.

Road Work Ahead

This addresses a very valid concern most of us have when driving.

I Am Confusion

I would like to end on this Vine because I am also confused about most American pronunciations as well. The Vine does a great job pointing out a clear discrepancy in how we pronounce things, and we need to address it.

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Now that you’ve watched some of the classic, need-to-know Vines, we can discuss the beauty of Vine. Vine is amazing because it really made content creators have to be creative to stand out and to meet the 7 second restriction. It made Viners have to really find something profound, novel, or presently odd to present, and boil it down to the 7 second essences of the topic.

Another plus of the 7 second restriction is that it made bad Vines bearable as well. If you read through a disappointing 300 page book or a 2 hour movie, you’re probably going to be angry to have wasted your time on that (and rightfully so to some degree), but if you watch a bad 7 second Vine, that shouldn’t really piss you off because it’s only 7 seconds. Vines for that reason have great payoff and very little risk, which make them a great source of entertainment.

The fact that TikToks do not have this kind of restriction is my main disappointment in videos. The lack of this restriction I think to some degree makes some of the content not as fun as Vine (although there are still some SOLID TikTokers as well*). It also makes the disappointing TikToks even more disappointing because I waste a lot of time trying to watch them to the end only to get no pay off. But the one thing I think TikToks do well is the trends where multiple people produce TikToks following the general trend but with the TikToker’s own twist on it**.

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I know this blog post was super extra. Thank you for reading through to the end. Hope you got some great Vines from it!