Thursday, June 6, 2013
How Vine is Making Us More Focused...Wait, What Did You Say
Vine, owned by Twitter, is a stop motion video animation app. Videos created on Vine have a six second record time and are set to continually loop. "The constant looping of the six-second video, while hypnotic, is also slightly macabre and voyeuristic, but it does a lot to drive the message home."1
For advertisers, Vine is a dream come true. The hyped up video loop creates excitment around the ad while simultaneously simplifying the idea. One of the main benefits of using Vine is the reduction of useless material that is included in most videos. Only having six seconds of record time forces the producer to think more critically about what is considered to be the most valuable material in their video. Consumers gain a quick idea, presented in an entertaining format, in only six seconds of their valuable time. Check out this example of a Vine created by the band 'Daft Punk' to announce the tracks on their new album...
Pretty cool, right?!
However, I would like to propose the idea that Vine maybe isn't so good for our attention spans...In 2001, the average attention span was 12 seconds. In 2011, the average attention span dropped to five seconds. FIVE SECONDS! (I'm not yelling. I just had to type something in a different font to get your attention to last for another five seconds) For some reason, I do not feel that this is a good thing for society. For example, it takes longer than five seconds to do many important things...
...filling up a car with petrolium, merging into oncoming traffic, walking across a busy street, removing somthing hot from the oven, listening to directions...
Paying attention while completing these tasks is utterly important! I would like to suggest that maybe we should all try to do a little better at improving our attention spans. Perhaps even bring up the average to nine seconds or so.
Maybe Vine is brilliant for capitalizing on what we already know to be true about our short attention spans? Maybe Vine is to be blamed for contributing to, and perpetuating an already serious attention span problem?
If you have beat the odds and managed to read this far down the post, please feel free to comment and tell us your favorite color. And while you are at it, tell us what you think about Vine.
by INFO 3130 Social Networking, Jessica Finster
Special thanks to our sources...
1, Dane Cobain "How Vine is Changing the Face of Online Journalism"
http://socialmediatoday.com/danejohncobain/1451086/how-vine-changing-face-online-journalism
2, Ty Kiisel "Is Social Media Shortening Our Attention Span"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2012/01/25/is-social-media-shortening-our-attention-span/
3, Neil Vidyarthi "Attention Spans Have Dropped from 12 Minutes to 5 Seconds, How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds"
http://socialtimes.com/attention-spans-have-dropped-from-12-minutes-to-5-seconds-how-social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic_b86479
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Vine certainly could be contributing to the decrease in our attention spans but it is also a combination of Facebook, and Twitter, just to name a couple. This is mindless entertainment, and does nothing to to further our ability to concentrate. It takes me about 5 seconds to read a status update, and I am on to the next one. Your mind gets used to these short spurts of concentration, so no wonder our attention spans are decreasing.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think Vine is a great way to advertise, not only because of our attention spans, but because we have other things to do than watch an advertisement. If you can catch people's attention for a short amount of time, and get your point across, you have possibly gained a new customer.
Leeanna, great point! Vine may be contributing to the decline of our attention spans but it is definitely not the only social networking site that has jumped on this trend. I think it is merely repeating (add espresso) the essence of what facebook and twitter are already doing.
DeleteMy favorite color is gray! I made it! As far as Vine is concerned- I do not have the Vine app on my phone, but I wouldn't mind getting it at some point. But I do have to say I really enjoy some of the videos my friends post. Two of my girl friends in NYC always post videos of their dog eating their ice cream or of them walking down the street, and I love it! It makes me feel more familiarized with what they are doing and what they see every day...however, it can lead to less phone calls to each other if I or they feel updated to much via social networks. But otherwise I have always loved film and have had an appreciation for ability to capture a specific time and place. It definitely makes advertisers have to pick out the raw message they want to get across!
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Personally, I love the color gray. It is very mysterious. And I would watch Vine videos about NYC all day and probably not even care if it was contributing to the decline of my attention span ;)
DeleteYes, I also agree that sites like Vine, Facebook and Twitter are not doing our attention spans any favors. As part of Generation Y, I've personally noticed people my age have trouble just keeping a conversation on one topic for even a minute. With that said, does it really benefit advertisers? With such a short attention span, does the information we receive via Twitter, Vine etc. really have an impact? Given that a video on Vine is six seconds, a person with an hour to kill could technically watch over 400 videos....
ReplyDeleteIan, I've never considered that an individual could watch 400 Vine videos per hour! That is insane! I also wonder how many images actually mean anything to our brains anymore, or if merely the exposure counts as a marketing win..
DeleteIt is crazy how Vine has become so popular as of recent. I currently do not have vine, but many of my friends do, which I follow on twitter. I agree with you when you say its just another Facebook or Twitter, only in video format. I have not seen Vine used by my people/companies who are trying to market a product/idea, but I am sure I will see it soon enough. It always seems like most Vine Posts come on Friday/Saturday, when alcohol is involved. Needless to say some of the videos are hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Garrett. And yes, we agree...some Vines are hilarious!
DeleteMy favorite color is red. I personally think Vine is a cool idea but something that I will never use because I don't want to get tied too much into social media. Vine got popular very fast and now probably half the tweets you see have a Vine as the tweet. The video format of Vine is very unique to the social media market. When I see a tweeted Vine I also agree that is involves drinking and partying. We are in college and that is what college kids do. Theses are the best years of our lives some people just like to document their lives more through social media and Vine, which in the move forward technological, is the best way to do it in our social media boom.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if people are saving all of these documentations of their lives. Like in fifty years will we all say to our grandkids, "hey watch these 5,000 video files of when I was younger..."
DeleteGreen and Orange. Vine is fun and the thing to do now a days. Most people are taking full use of this to reach a totally different market niche. I personally just started using vine now that it has made its move to android. Which makes me love it even more that it is not tried down the Apple ways. I just started a Vine for the largest student org on campus Niner Nation Gold. It will be a great tool for us to use at upcoming sporting events. It will help to show off the atmosphere in the student section. It will help us show new people the chants we do ahead of time so everyone will feel involved. I hope our attention spans don't shrink anymore or this will render advertising useless. Follow CLT_NNG on vine by the way.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea Nick! This is a perfect example of how to use Vine. And way to go on the plug for Niner Nation Gold ;)
DeleteNone of these social networking sites are benefitting our attention spans at all. However, they are mindless entertainment. I was surprised as to how fast this company has grown because I see little growth potential outside of making 6 second video clips. I think that the reason they have become so popular is because the attention span of many individuals have significantly decreased over the past decade. While this app is certainly not benefitting the greater good, it makes for a few good laughs after some drinks.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Brad!
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