Vine Science

Vine got formulaic fast: so I drew a plot flowchart

This image depicts my feelings of love for the failed app

Don’t get me wrong, I love Vine. I wish Vine weren’t withering in the sun. But it’s 7-second nature, which was part of its genius, was also its expansion boundary.

In 7 seconds, in order to have a punchline, most buildups are reliant on a stereotype or other existing concept. “Women be like…” “Asian drivers be like…” It’s not a place to value political correctness.

When the only black guy at a party asks for a beer (my awkward attempt)

And while I was laughing, I also felt guilty. Some of these things shouldn’t be funny.

Bridget Todd wrote a great Medium piece titled, “People of color are the only reason why Vine was good.” Definitely worth a read. I’m inclined to agree with her — because the content produced by non-PoC was a lot of dares (“Do it for the Vine!”), staring into the camera with your cleavage visible, or awkward attempts at using stereotypes in non-offensive ways (see my above example).

So for a quick analysis of Vine’s content, here is Vine Science:

For a better close-up, here’s a recreation of the original chart:

Choose one to two items from each column and press record.

Not every Vine can have meaningful social commentary, or depict true talent.

But they sure try.