Is TikTok the new Vine? A seemingly controversial debate has separated a generation of young adults. It has brought about many questions that may not have a solid answer. What even is TikTok? Hasn’t Vine been dead for a while now?

TikTok is a new video-sharing social media network. The original platform for TikTok was Musical.ly and was created for lip-syncing music videos of fifteen seconds for up to one minute. Musical.ly was released in 2014 before being merged into TikTok in late August of 2018. TikTok quickly became the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store, with an astounding 33 million downloads in just one quarter. It left other apps, like YouTube and Instagram, who were competing for the number one position, in the dust, according to www.interestingengineering.com

Vine is similar to TikTok in the way that they are both social media platforms for video-sharing. The amount of video time for Vine is drastically smaller than TikTok with only six-second-long videos. Released in 2013, the number of people using Vine quickly skyrocketed before its ultimate and sad demise in 2017, when Facebook bought Vine from the original creator with the intention to create a spin-off version to be known as V2. Other social media apps were quick to come out with similar features. Instagram added 15-second video, as well as Snapchat, which added 10-second video sharing, according to www.interestingengineering.com

Vine has long been known for its unique, iconic and memorable quotes, whereas TikTok is known for its repetitive dances and other trends. These dances and audio clips are catchy and can be hard to get out of your head. Despite no longer being an available service, Vines continue to live on through YouTube compilation videos. However, TikTok has many cringe compilation videos on YouTube as well. 

TikTok will never be the new Vine. There is no TikTok that will ever be as memorable as the Vines that fill our YouTube compilations. The unoriginal and constantly recreated renegade dance could never compare to Vines abundance of renowned video clips. Iconic Vines like the toddler that pointed at a flock of geese and said, “Look at all those chickens“ or the young boy in the pantry that said, “Hurricane Katrina? More like Hurricane Tortilla“ as a bag of tortilla chips he was reaching for falls on him.

It depends on who you are, whether you will be procrastinating your homework because you are up late either watching Vine compilation videos or endlessly scrolling through TikTok. 

TikTok may not be the new Vine but can be fun and enjoyable to watch and create. Vine is and always will be the superior social media streaming service.