What was once a novelty has now become a daily ritual. Scrolling through social media for hours and consuming endless amounts of mindless content appears to be a pastime of choice for many.
Approximately 73% of people in the U.S. are active on social media, ranking third worldwide, and spend an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes daily, according to DemandSage.
With these statistics in mind, it’s no surprise that almost everyone has a social media app they were once obsessed with or still are. While the idea of it suddenly disappearing used to seem unthinkable, it has become more common than one might imagine.
For example, Millennials may fondly remember MySpace, which launched in 2003 and reached its peak popularity in the mid-2000s before fading away. Unable to keep up with evolving trends and outpaced by emerging social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace eventually lost its relevance.
Even modern social media giants aren’t immune. Earlier this year, millions of Americans briefly lost access to TikTok due to a government ban, which claimed the platform posed a national security threat.
The interruption was short-lived, and within hours, President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok’s service to be restored.
Despite being one of the most downloaded apps in the U.S., with over 135 million daily active U.S. users, according to DemandSage, its temporary disappearance served as a reminder that no app, no matter how popular, is invincible.
Vine makes an unexpected comeback
While some social media platforms reached their expiration date, others maintain relevance by constantly evolving to meet consumers’ needs. These include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), which continue to gain users to this day.
However, few anticipated the return of Vine, the once-iconic short-form video app, after an eight-year hiatus.
Founded in 2012 and acquired by X, within months, Vine quickly gained popularity before its shutdown in 2017. Its brief life made a significant mark on internet culture, leaving fans to wonder if it would ever make a comeback.
The new app diVine brings back the look and feel of Vine after an eight-year hiatus.
diVine’s unexpected debut
A new app called diVine has launched, providing access to over 100,000 archived Vine videos restored by the Archive Team before the platform’s closure, according to TechCrunch.
With this new version, users can create profiles, upload videos, and watch nostalgic Vine compilations. However, diVine will remain true to Vine’s original purpose by not allowing any AI-generated content to be posted, which will be verified using Guardia Project.
Original Vine creators who still own the copyright to their content can request the removal of their videos from diVine and reclaim their account to post new videos or upload their old content.
diVine’s current launch stage
diVine was developed by activist and technologist Evan Henshaw-Plath, who goes by the name @rabble. The platform uses funding from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s nonprofit And Other Stuff, which promotes open-source tech tools, protocols, and applications.
Integrating Vine video backups from the Archive Team’s large 40-50 GB binary files, Rabble successfully extracted the videos along with their original engagement metrics, recreating a Vine-like app.
“So basically, I’m like, can we do something that’s kind of nostalgic?” said Rabble to TechCrunch. “Can we do something that takes us back, that lets us see those old things, but also lets us see an era of social media where you could either have control of your algorithms, or you could choose who you follow, and it’s just your feed, and where you know that it’s a real person that recorded the video?”
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diVine contains around 150,000 to 200,000 archived videos from about 60,000 original Vine creators, which is a small percentage compared to TikTok.
The app is currently in the testing stages, and no official public launch date has been announced. However, its initial pilot has already reached maximum capacity.
diVine’s website now notes:
“Our beta test is full and we can’t let more folks on the apps until Apple and Google do their thing. If you want to be the first to know when that happens, join our mailing list.”
Vine’s potential return through diVine is a reminder of the cultural impact social media can have in the world and that nothing posted on social media is ever completely erased.
“The social media revolution is well underway,” said Dr. Wallace E. Boston School of Business at American Public University Associate Professor Linda C. Ashar. “The massive changes social media use has wrought in how people connect and communicate are largely positive and have improved other people’s lives. It is driven by humans’ very nature to communicate, collaborate, and share information.”