by Natalie Fitts
He has never starred in a TV show or movie.
He has never released a single.
He has never written a book or set a world record.
Nash Grier’s only claim to fame is Vine, a video-based application owned by Twitter that allows users to make videos that last up to 6 seconds each. According to CNBC, some have called it the “Instagram for video.”
Grier is now the most followed user on Vine. He made his first Vine last April and currently has over 5.7 million followers. The 16-year-old is not the only “Vine famous” star. In fact, the top five Vine users are all people who found their fame on the application.
How has this happened?
Senior Cassie Florido attributes the fame of her favorite Viners, such as Grier and Jack and Jack, to the app’s revine feature, which allows users to share other users’ videos with their own followers.
“At first I only followed people from school,” Florido said. “Once [Vine] updated the [revine] feature, I started finding out about all the ‘Vine famous’ people.”
Sophomore Maureen Whittaker agrees that the revine feature has helped regular people find fame.
“Someone makes one funny Vine and then it spreads across the whole [app],” Whittaker said. “Then people go and follow them.”
According to freshman Nicole Blanck, Vine users must establish a reputation for funny videos in order to get people to revine their posts.
“Once people see a few funny videos from [someone], they’ll be like, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll follow them,’” Blanck said. “Then they just gain a bunch of followers. Then more and more people hear [about] and like them.”
Blanck acknowledges that some of the most popular Viners are not only famous for their humor.
“They’re funny, and a lot of them are really cute,” Blanck said. “[That] doesn’t hurt.”
According to Florido, many Vine-famous celebrities are taking advantage of their fame on other social media platforms.
“I think they will [stay famous after Vine] because they’re transferring over to other social media sites and YouTube,” Florido said. “They’re taking their Vine fan base and bringing it over into sites where you can be more interactive so they’ll continue to grow their fan base.”
According to Blanck, Vine-famous people are finding ways other than social media to maintain and expand their fame beyond the app.
“Nine boys from Vine are on tour right now called Magcon,” Blanck said. “They’ll go to cities and you can meet them. That’ll help keep them famous.”
Ultimately, Florido and Blanck think that the famous Viners are famous because they were not celebrities before.
“I just think Vine’s really interesting,” Florido said. “It’s just normal people with a phone. Anyone can make a Vine. They’re just normal kids like us that just happen to be famous through this app and have a bunch of followers now. But really, they’re just teenage boys.”
“They’re regular kids,” Blanck said. “They didn’t go on Vine to become famous. They just made vines and happened to become famous. You can relate to them.”
