Social Media Short-Video Sharing

Short-Form Videos (Social Media) often refer to video content on social media that have a total duration of one minute or less. Although the official duration length for short form videos is debated, most agree on a figure of 10 minutes or less. Short-form clips are designed to be shorter in duration, but long enough to keep the attention of social media users. Users are exposed to a wider range of information in a shorter amount of time, as they engage with a larger volume of videos. Short form videos have been increasingly popular, thriving on various social media platforms. These include (but are not limited to):

• TikTok
• Snapchat (Discover)
• Instagram (Instagram Reels)
• Facebook (Facebook Reels)
• Youtube (Youtube Shorts)
• Vine (discontinued as of 2017)
• Musical.ly (now known as TikTok)

Notable History

Snapchat

Short form videos are believed to have made their introduction to social media in 2012, when Snapchat would introduce the ‘disappearing 10 second video’. These short-form videos were meant for sending between friends, which would transform even further. In 2013, Snapchat announced they were adding a new feature: ‘stories’. This type of short-form video (stories) would transform the social media industry, making short-form videography more commonplace on social media platforms. Other social media platforms would introduce this concept to their own platforms, with Instagram Stories appearing in August 2016 and Facebook Stories emerging in March 2017.

Vine

In 2013, the world would also see the release of Vine, a social media platform that allowed users to post looping videos, set at a max duration of 6 seconds. The sole purpose of Vine was to allow users to scroll through the endless short-form videos posted by creators. Vine would become increasingly popular, as they would reach 200 million users in December 2015. As competition increased across social media platforms though, Vine, under the ownership of Twitter, would discontinue the ability to engage in content uploading in January 2017. Around half of the major creators on Vine would leave the app to join a competitor, leading to the downfall of the service. A major citation for the collapse was the inability of Vine to pay the creators for their content.

TikTok

The term TikTok references the brief length of the videos. Creators can upload videos anywhere from 15-60 seconds, or even as long as 3 minutes. An algorithm in place allows users to view content catered personally to them. It was created in 2016 by the Chinese firm ByteDance and is known as Douyin in China. Its sudden rise in popularity began in late 2017, when it purchased a competitor app, Musical.ly, and transferred its 200 million users to TikTok. TikTok was launched in its current design in 2018 and quickly climbed the ranks of media platform titans heavyweights. TikTok announced that the platform had about one billion active monthly users globally in the start of 2021. 

Impact on Influencers

Short-form videos have given influencers the opportunity to reach their audiences not only quicker, but more accurately. As discussed with Vine in 2017, creators were unable to be retained due to a lack of compensation for their content. For example, TikTok uses an algorithm to help personalize the content that each user sees on the app. The intention of the algorithm is to allow the influencer to deliver their content to their intended audience and to allow the user to receive their own personalized content.

Ethical Concerns

Data Security

Social media can be a great tool for socializing with others and sharing information with friends and family. Any followers or friends can better understand one's daily life through newsfeeds and private messaging. On the other hand, these networks can provide attackers with critical data needed to destroy innocent lives. This issue has been and is currently a concern for short-form video streaming services and the like. Back in May 2014, Snapchat would fall victim to a cyber attack. This attack alone affected 4.6 million users, with hackers revealing the username and phone number associated with each account. A few months later, another attack would happen, but not on Snapchat itself. In October 2014, a company named Snapsaved was the victim of a 200,000 photograph breach, a third-party service not affiliated with Snapchat. This service was designed to save the ‘snaps’ sent between users, which wasn’t typically the case as they were designed to disappear after so much time had passed. Mary Ritti, a Snapchat spokesperson, explained that the use of a third-party service like such is against the Snapchat Terms of Use, as, “they compromise our users’ security,”. Efforts to remove such apps from making it to each respective app store are still strong, to protect users. As recently as August 2020, a security company named Comparitech announced that as many as 235 million social media profiles (Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube) were exposed in a data leak. The information involved in the leak included names, ages, genders, profile image records, email addresses, and/or phone numbers. The method in which this was conducted was by ‘data scraping’. Data scraping is not illegal, but does violate Terms and Conditions on various apps and services. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done on the user’s end to prevent such data collection, unless they limit as much of their information on their page as possible from people who do not follow them.

Exposures to Children and Young Teens

Parents have started to sound the alarm on short-form videos on social media. Parents' main worries about inappropriate content were unacceptable music and phrases, sexually suggestive content, inappropriate activities for those under the age of 21, and insulting pranks. Parents were also security conscious, citing concern over short videos. Parents are also left concerned about their children's mental health from actions such as cyberbullying, which can lead to despair and self harm.