Here’s a morning shower thought we’ll inevitably regret: Is TikTok is the opposite of Clint Eastwood?[1] No? Well, let’s move on immediately.

If you haven’t guessed, we’re talking about short-form video today. Do you remember the first TikTok you ever saw? We’re betting[2] it was either on Instagram or Twitter. Video apps (and the creators on them) actually rely on being able to simply share to other platforms – perhaps even more than native reach within the app where they originally posted their content. So as Byte rises from the ashes of Vine like… like a phoenix with arboreal locomotion (???), FFWD consider how it will achieve success. All this and more in our Read of the Week.

If you don’t know a great deal about Vine’s successor, NBC have kindly put together a quick[3] explainer. After that, we turn our focus to Instagram – n+1 published a fairly lengthy essay about a love/hate relationship with perhaps social media’s most addictive platform. We also examine how ESPN’s Instagram account boosted its Gen-Z engagement by opting to make things personal.

We conclude with the New Statesman’s interview with Twitter’s outgoing European vice-president Bruce Daisley, and an interesting rumination from The Guardian on what makes Billie Eilish so important to today’s youth.

READ OF THE WEEK: The short-form video app war will be fought through off-platform embeds
[FFWD]

What is Byte? The internet’s new old-school, short-form video app
[NBC News]

My Instagram: life in the machine-learning fast lane.
[n+1]

ESPN’s personality-driven Instagram approach leading to more engagements
[Front Office]

Bruce Daisley on leaving Twitter and fixing workplace culture
[New Statesman]

Catharsis queen: how Billie Eilish became the voice of Gen Z – and the Grammys
[The Guardian]

[1] Dirty Harry: “Go ahead. Make my day. TikTok: “Make your day.” Huh.
[2] ZERO UNITS OF YOUR FINEST CURRENCY
[3] Please note that we resisted the far too easy byte-size joke