New app dies on the grapevine

New app dies on the grapevine

Photo credit: Wikipedia

By Jacqueline Squillace, Staff Reporter

Vine, the popular social media network for shareable six-second videos, announced in October of 2016 that the app was closing its doors. Vine launched stars such as Shawn Mendes, Tori Kelly and Ruth B, the singer of the popular song “Lost Boy,” into their careers. Now that Vine is officially shut down as of Jan. 17, the creators of the popular app turned it into the Vine Camera. Users can still make vines on this app, however, the videos can only be posted to Twitter, or saved in the camera roll.

With this kind of social media competition, it doesn’t make sense to turn Vine into the Vine Camera instead of just getting rid of the app all together.

Even though users can make vines on both Vine and Vine Camera, there’s a lot of differences between the original Vine app and the updated version. A positive side to this app is that the people who gained popularity from Vine can keep sharing their six second videos through Twitter. However, the creators of Vine Camera got rid of all the independent social aspects of the app itself. In the original app, users created short videos to upload to their Vine profile for their followers to like and re-vine. With the Vine Camera, the user is limited to just filming the video and saving it or posting it on Twitter. Vine created its own genre of entertainment, and was able to give users the opportunity to share things that happened in their everyday lives. Without the social aspect of the app, Vine Camera fails to provide any real substance to its users.

The only feature the app provides from the original is recording videos, making it seem almost pointless. Other social media outlets like Snapchat and Instagram have made it possible for users to create Vine-esque videos and post to their profiles. With this kind of social media competition, it doesn’t make sense to turn Vine into the Vine Camera instead of just getting rid of the app all together.

Because you can only take videos, this app is bland. Everything about the app has downgraded. Before it was turned to Vine Camera, Vine revolutionized social media and the way friends and celebrities connect with each other. Vine Camera is a big miss, and the creators would have been better off getting rid of the app all together.

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