Only one app really changed the way we viewed the world in 2014, and it did it in just six seconds.
This month, you’ll read a lot of year-end articles proclaiming that this site or that app was the social media platform of 2014. Authors will offer up lofty cultural contexts and pander to you pretentiously as they trip over themselves to explain why Ello or Yik Yak or Yo revolutionized the way we interacted.
Nope. Vine defined the year. No other app caused its users to sexually defile a hot pocket or choke themselves half to death only so they could be immortalized by the Internet. From self-immolation to electrocution and everything in between, people stopped short of nothing to loop themselves to six seconds of digital fame.
These are the 17 brave souls who really did it, and overdid it, for the vine in 2014.
https://vine.co/v/MuzPTKxzpYB
Everyone wanted to get in on the action.
https://vine.co/v/M1MBZpKAFTw
But in their eagerness, some people might have… overdone it.
https://vine.co/v/MOEJIUFuYqH
People created viral sensations like whaling just to get their six seconds of limelight.
https://vine.co/v/MJIq0epb9LM
Some created new dance trends.
Watch out for the ice, dude.
https://vine.co/v/M7nEJIW1LOq
Others rode the coattails of popular memes to Internet glory.
Here’s one girl’s take on “Slide into your DMs like…”
https://vine.co/v/Obvm3BQaBZp
People found exciting new ways to defile their bodies for fame.
Remember the cereal challenge?
https://vine.co/v/M201OlngiQO
Or the pass-out challenge?
https://vine.co/v/M9JbiuXM5pr
This guy tried piercing his own ear with a Nerf gun.
https://vine.co/v/O6VWYpKaFwg
This kid gave an electrifying performance.
https://vine.co/v/OvvaeMLavrV
Nothing changes the fact that some stars just burn brighter than others.
Like Tony Gomez, who lit his butt on fire.
https://vine.co/v/MEBBdMUL3JM
Indeed, in 2014 people tried to go viral on Vine in all sorts of ways.
Like Ebola scares:
https://vine.co/v/OM6zh6aJ0uH
And showing off their goods in failed trampoline backflips:
NSFW crop drawings:
https://vine.co/v/OrxtL0XdVMO
Shopping cart theft:
https://vine.co/v/M2JVadEzKma
Even original songs:
https://vine.co/v/MWJbuutVxw5
But they all rose to the challenge—lots of challenges—in their own way.
https://vine.co/v/MVdPDrVawM9
In 2015 and beyond, let us always endeavor to vine our best selves. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Like a loop, you see. A six-second loop.
Photos via Vine | Remix by Jason Reed
