It is said that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. While I still know very little about filling out my W-2’s, I do know for sure that, eventually, everyone must die. Apparently, video sharing, social media applications are no exception as the death of the popular app Vine was announced by Twitter late last month.

While the repercussions of discontinuing a massively popular social media forum are immense and far reaching, I’m more concerned about what we’re going to do about filling this unquenchable thirst we have for hilarious videos. Was there no greater convenience than owning the ability to reach peak comedic amusement than by simply watching a six second amalgamation of moving light and sound? Vine was our generation’s purest form of artistic expression. There was literally no time for confusing subtext or unnecessary symbols, they were short and to the point. Youtube is great but who has time for videos lasting longer than 6 seconds? My attention span fails after like 10 seconds so there’s no way I can withstand anymore time than that. Vine was much more than a little square on the screen of my phone. Vine was a portal to endless universes. Vine was an outlet for expression and love. Vine was a good friend. Many a rainy day and boredom filled afternoon left me to occupy myself with the wackiest six second adventures of my fellow tech savvy youths. How will we react to this loss? We haven’t experienced the death of such an influential social platform before. How will this affect the way we treat these applications and the invaluable services they provide us? Perhaps this is a wake-up call not to take these everyday pleasures for granted.

The influence of Vine is felt in the interactions of everyday life. But why did it mean so much to us? The characters and figures that filled the screen become more than social media presence, some rose to the rank of celebrities, some ascended to the heights of internet legend. Imagine the dullness of our world today, the degree of bite sized portions of visual comedy coming in tiny bursts to be distributed to our friends and relatives. There was always something uniquely magical about Vine. A type of swagger nothing else could compare to. The universal structure and culture of the art of Vine will forever have an infinite impact on the world of visual media. What else could allow for the most unexpected heroes to rise from the unknown and capture our hearts in the most interesting ways? Like our beloved Gavin shown above. Who could have predicted his success?

Twitter’s great, don’t get me wrong, but there was just something so beautifully straightforward about Vine. There was a mysterious simplicity to it. Something about how the few seconds of screen time only allowed for the deepest most basic conveyance of human emotions. Vine brought us a simplicity we are dearly needed in a world where just about everything is more complicated than it seems.

Goodnight sweet prince. May you rest in peace.