Like many other people my age, I spend a significant amount of time watching compilations of Vine clips on YouTube. It’s an addicting YouTube hole to go down, for sure. There was a lot of good content that optimized the format. I mean, who can forget this iconic intro-
Or this morning meal-
Or this plea for self-assurance-
The number of iconic Vines seems endless, doesn’t it?
Well it isn’t. It has an end. The app lasted for four years, and compared to the six years of YouTube videos that are uploaded every day, there weren’t a lot of Vines total, and of that even fewer was popular. For every “Fre Sha Voca Do” there were about ten pre-teens just ranting to a camera. (Some of those became iconic too, but most were not.)
That being said, I don’t think that Vine 2 is a good idea.
I love and miss Vine as much as the next Gen-Z gal with a Twitter account. But I think that by reactivating the app, content producers will feel more pressure to continually make Vines that are as good as the classics, and that will thereby influence stale content. Not only that, but we as fans will inevitably be disappointed when we don’t enjoy any new Vine as much as we enjoyed Ryan Gosling not eating his cereal.
It isn’t just Vine, though. I rarely ever think reboots are a good idea at all. For example, there are also talks of The Office getting a reboot.
Again, I love The Office. I cried when the finale aired on NBC and again each time I watched the finale after binge-watching the entire series on Netflix. However, realistically, the same creative team and actors won’t be involved for the reboot. (They didn’t even stay consistently throughout the series.) Most of the writers and cast are likely busy, because being part of the show demonstrated to the world how super talented they are. John Krasinski is a freakin’ action star now, for pete’s sake.
Even if the entire team came back, it would be very hard to impress the world. Fans have an expectation now, and we would be devastated if new episodes aren’t as good as the old ones. In fact, they definitely won’t be. Because we’ve had time to form an emotional attachment to the old episodes, nothing will be able to satisfy us as much as the old ones do. (Hence, our collective nostalgia for all things 90s and 2000s right now.)
Think about this: when was the last time you truly loved something rebooted as much as you loved the original? No, sequels don’t count.
As much as we want to re-experience the shows, movies, and videos we love for the first time, that’s impossible. In the meantime, there are lots of creators who make amazing things just waiting to be discovered by people like you who are ready to pay attention.
Love what you love. Re-watch your favorite Vines and Office episodes, but don’t close yourself off from what might become your next new obsession. Okay?