tiktok is unfunny, vine was also unfunny but funnier, why?

How does one describe Vine and TikTok, what was the difference, realistically? In a nutshell, not much, both platforms were short-form content, with similar content creators (even the same ones on occasion), so how come one is put on a high pedestal and the other regarded as the devil in disguise by people from multiple generations and cultures?

In my opinion, this all boils down to the timing, both in a calendar sense as well as the length of the content the platforms host.

Vine, released in January 2013 as an iOS app, allowed its users to upload videos up to 6 seconds long, it was one of the first social media platforms to bring in this short form video content to the general audience, with the only other type of platforms to do so were basically were places such as Newgrounds which was popularly known for hosting user made animations, even those spanning well over 6 seconds, usually surpassing the minute mark. (Source - Wikipedia)

But video, in this format, was new, of course, there was Snapchat, which allowed for short videos to be sent to friends and a public story, but that was different in the sense that people did not utilise Snapchat as a form of entertainment, but rather for networking purposes. So Vine was truly something new and fresh when it came to ways one may entertain oneself.

Vine quickly became a hit and stuck around until its closure in 2017, by this point a significant portion of internet users grew to love this type of short form media and wanted more, Vine has not only become a form of entertainment to its users, but to some a job which bought an income throughout some monetisation, but mainly throughtout brand deals and other opportunities gained due to the exposure gained thru being a content creator on Vine. So when it finally shut down, there was a clear demand within the market for something similar, and fast.

TikTok (known as Douyin in mainland China) launched to the asian market in September of 2016, where it stayed somewhat contained until the closure of Vine, gaining major popularity in early 2018. As mentioned before, the gap in the market was there, something was needed to fill it, and TikTok happened to get noticed due to its timing, the platform launched allowing a very similar user experience to vine, short form content, some argue even better than Vine, allowing for short form content up to 60 seconds at the time (compared to Vines 7 second format), it wasn't long before TikTok took off with the general audience, reaching milestones faster than any other app, speeds never observed before since the internet begun, surpassing over 2 billion downloads in 2025, and surpassing Google as the most accesed website. (Source - Wikipedia)

So, despite this major, never-before-seen-before success, why do some people regard TikTok as being 'less fun' than Vine?

A lot is at play here, Some argue that due to TikTok allowing up to 10-minute videos, present day, it ruined the original element and vibe both Vine and early TikTok had. There are debates about what 'short form content' is defined as; some say under 10 seconds, some under 60, some under 180. While this is unclear and subjective, what a lot of people agreed with is that Vines 7 second format, while restrictive, also had content creators having to think of a joke and punchline in such little time which is believed to have only made them funnier at times, of course this was not always the case, but this 7 second format has been esentially named by some as the perfect length.

The other 'timing' element that could affect and make opinions shift is the times we are living in, a lot has changed since the early 2010s. attitudes towards social media have shifted a lot, with countless studies and just general opinions coming out that social media can be unhealthy if overdone, and with these findings, TikTok quickly got put under the spotlight as users admitted to it being their most used app, for hours and hours on end everyday, amounting to entire days being wasted within as little as a month and esentially classified as a negative thing, almost demonised.

While TikTok is getting the harsher treatment, why wasn't this the case with Vine?

Simple, it was new, it was a different time, and people were usually unaware of overexposure to screen time or, in general, just more indifferent, with a much smaller number of people speaking of it.

There is a lot of truth that TikTok can have an addictive nature to it, with it being very easy to get lost in it for hours. but this was also the case with Vine, although the content was shorter and people did spend less time on it due to more limitations (such as mobile data being offered in lesser amounts and at higher prices, causing people to be more frugal with using their phone to surf the internet outside their homes), phones just being more limited (e.g batteries lasting way less than nowdays due to the capacity standard at the time) as well as there just generally being more to do and people hanging outside (and offline) more often than nowadays.

Vine was essentially, to put it simply, just the other head of the double-headed dragon which simply got dismissed from getting the same treatment as TikTok due to the time and landscape as well as nowdays, being regarded as funnier due to nostalgia, people regard and remember Vine more fondly and associate it with a better time, as with most things that we as humans do this, wether its music, fashion, trends, most stuff that happened in the past is viewed with rose tinted glasses, and this didn't exclude vine.

So, was Vine funnier, or is TikTok funnier? Neither, the platforms themselves act as hosts for content creators to post their work, it's the content on the platform which needs to be considered, and in a sense, trends have shifted, and so has content, the 7 second restriction also played a part in having content creators be somewhat more original and more to the pooint which did add to the element of humours, but TikTok can also reproduce some of the vibe and whimsy TikTok had, it's all up to the creators on the platform.