Vine: The Internet’s Most Insensitive Platform
by Ryan Prussky
One of the more controversial websites, Twitter, bought Vine in October of 2012, and by the upcoming January the site would be ready to launch. One of the major concerns, which is also seen as a benefit to some people, is the lack of supervision/authority. Twitter allows for nearly anything to be said or shown, including vulgar images and language. Since it’s introduction in 2006, when the internet was still becoming wildly popular, Twitter was considered one of the most insensitive highly used websites. That changed when Vine become active in 2013. Although users on Twitter continue to have the freedom to say whatever they want to whomever, that same freedom is granted to those using the vine platform.
Naturally, you must be asking yourself, how is Vine more insensitive than Twitter if they are both equally free to post whatever they want? Both platforms restrict the creator to limit themselves to either 140 characters or a six second video. The users of Twitter span vastly in intentions behind their account. Some have an account to simply share their experiences electronically, others to try and contact, in addition to stay up to date with their favorite celebrities, or some may even be trying to and accumulate fame through this platform. The accounts on vine, however, are one of two people. Either someone who is creating content, or someone who is watching the content. Those who are making the content try to get it seen any way they can, which often results to making jokes at the expense of others.
With such a short period of time to tell a joke or show something funny, it is hard to do so without being sexist, racially insensitive, homophobic, etc., which is evident time and time again as new viners continue to diminish a group of people. It has got to the point where people aren’t even able to catch on when a vine crosses the line and becomes overly demeaning. For instance, when famous viner David Lopez, uses Hispanic stereotypes to gain a following. Just because he is Hispanic does not mean he should push these out dated and racially insensitive assumptions about a race of people just for a laugh.
Another big problem with Vine is that it is a breeding ground for stolen material, often directly from a fellow Viner. This means that if one person thinks it is okay to make light of certain stereotypes or insults because they are that ethnicity/race/etc., it will almost surely be re-created by someone. Simply put, those who are creating the content, whether it is stolen or original, are only adding to the issue of ignorance and false perceptions of a certain group.
In the past few years more and more viners are seeing the flaws in the short video platform, in addition to no longer wanting to be apart of a platform that allows such maleficence content to be shared. Which prompted thousands of Viner’s to transition their content as well as themselves, over to a more structured platform, like Youtube. Today, Vine is still around but has lost many of its followers as well as many content creators, which is a direct result of them not being able to provide the same entertainment value, but more importantly not being able to monitor the harmful content that may be uploaded on a daily basis.
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