The End of Vine (ft. Izzy from Be Kind Rewind)

When Vine died, the angels cried. No but seriously, in this era of late-stage internet, when it feels like politics, groupthink, and all around bad vibes are all exploding at once, it makes sense that we’re yearning for a simpler time. Who wouldn’t miss the innocence of silly, 6 second videos made for no reason other than to make us laugh? But was Vine as awesome as we remember, or are our memories a bit rose-tinted? In this season 3 finale, Hannah and Maia are joined by Izzy from Be Kind Rewind (otherwise known as Bestie™) to reminisce about Vine’s cultural impact, and Izzy’s experience working for the company. Digressions include: a debate about whether Vine is the Quebec of social media giants, Maia trying to explain jokes to listeners, and Hannah’s “continual brain farts”.  SOURCES John Herrman, “Vine Changed the Internet Forever. How Much Does the Internet Miss It?” The New York Times, (2020) Janko Roettgers, “Twitter is Shutting Down Vine” Variety (2016) Julia Alexander, “The golden age of Youtube is over” The Verge (2019) Brian Patrick Eha, “Why Vine Was a Bad Match for Twitter” The New Yorker (2016) Mike Isaac, “Twitter’s 4-Year Odyssey With the 6-Second Video App Vine” New York Times (2016) Hua Hsu, “Vine and the New Gatekeepers of Self-Expression” The New Yorker (2016) Katie Rogers, “5 Vine Stars Share Why They Loved, and Outgrew, Platform” The New York Times (2016)  Romano Santos, “In Memory of Vine, Which Crawled so Tiktok Could Fly” Vice (2022) Mat Honan, “Why Vine Just Won’t Die”, Wired (2013) Lizzie Plaugic, “Vine was an underrated source of joy on the internet. Is it me, or does the internet feel less happy today.” The Verge (2016) Taylor Lorenz, “A Vine Reunion? Video Apps Clash and Byte Join Forces.” The New York Times (2021) Aja Romano, “You may not have understood Vine, but its demise is a huge cultural loss.” Vox (2016)  Brian Feldnman, “The Untold Story of What Happened After ‘Back at it Again at Krispy Kreme,’ The Best Vine of All Time”, Intelligencer (2016)