Social Media | Race, Gender & New Media

Vines are 6 second long videos that do to YouTube’s formula what Twitter did to Facebook’s: repackage it smaller and allow for a vastly increased amount of accessibility for creation. Like Twitter’s 140 character limit, the 6 second time limit creates a restriction that promotes a community that uses their time as efficiently and smartly as possible. Instead of truly being a limiting force, this 6 second limit encourages Vine’s millions of users to do unique and intelligent things with the brief span of time that they do have, especially if one is trying to produce original content.

This limiting force is not a perfect blessing for creativity, though. There is a sizable community on Vine of users who create and recycle a distinct style of memes, en masse, with effort only in transforming the meme just enough that is received as a unique iteration. I am not saying these memes videos are undesirable or detestable by any means, but rather that the air of creativity that the limiting factor has on those making original content for Vine has an equally sizable side effect for those users who are not trying to produce original content – the format, and the fact that Vines can be shot and edited from a phone mean that it is unbelievably simple to hop on the meme-train on Vine, especially considering the memes on Vine consist mostly of soundbites or their video equivalent, timing in at one half to 3 seconds. This means that the remainder of time is even more severely limited, and can really only be used to set up a joke, with whatever meme is to be used as the punchline. This diminishes the total creativity in the system by simplifying the process by which a Vine can achieve popularity.

Vine represents, to me, the trend for digital items to be made as digestible as possible. In some ways, Vines are even more package-able than animated gifs – a gif can be more than 6 seconds, for instance – and the fact that sound is included asks the question of the creators: how much content can you shove into this tiny box? Depending on the creator, the answer ranges, but it isn’t hard to find impressive displays of organization and comedic timing if you look enough.

Digital platforms haven’t always played the same role in my life that they currently do. Before I was in ninth grade, I didn’t have a Facebook account, and I never had a MySpace or an AOL account. The Internet was mostly used in my house to do research for school projects, sometimes order things online, and occasionally play games.

Now, hardly a day goes by where I am not using the Internet, and many of the ‘platforms’ that come with it. I use Amazon to buy my textbooks for school and to purchase other things I might need or want. I use Google for research and YouTube to watch videos for class as well as for fun. I check Facebook multiple times a day, both from the desire to know what is going on with my friends and from boredom. Going online and using these platforms has become a habit for me, for better or for worse.

Without these platforms, I can easily see my life becoming drastically different. For one thing, my life would definitely become harder, simply in terms of managing everything I have to do. For example, without Amazon it would have been difficult for me to have ordered my textbooks in time for classes this semester. Also, without the Internet in general I wouldn’t be able to access many of my assignments for school. Some of this convenience is part of having a personal laptop; when my laptop broke at the beginning of the fall semester, I found it more difficult to keep up with things in general, mostly because I didn’t have access to the Internet and its platforms at my fingertips. However, I was still able to access my schoolwork on the computers at the library, and even check Facebook and Twitter through apps on my phone. While that period of time was difficult for me in that I had to schedule time to go to the library to get my work done, it also demonstrates my heavy use of social media platforms, in that I would squint at my phone in order to check on updates rather than simply going without social media for a few weeks.

This reliance isn’t something I’m proud of, but it is something that, in my opinion, has been perpetuated by the platforms addressed in the reading. With its constantly updated timeline, segment for news headlines, and options to add pictures and videos, Facebook can keep its users worried that they’re missing out on new updates from their friends. As mentioned in the readings, Amazon employs purposeful methods to keep its customers interested and to keep them coming back (“The Age of the Platform,” pages 50-55). While these methods are arguably good business tactics for Amazon, they also contribute to its users reliance on the platform in general.

I don’t necessarily wish I could go back to the time in my life before I was so connected to these platforms, and I don’t think it is practical to wish for that either. At this point, human beings will continue to be connected to and interact with the Internet and its platforms. However, I think it is important for us to be aware of the tactics used by these platforms, such as Amazon, to keep us interested, and to be able to walk away from platforms like Facebook and interact in the real world as well.