Ever
wonder why GIF usage is so ubiquitous in online communication, especially by
our current generation? I went searching for any scholarly articles I could
find on the subject and stumbled upon a good one that summed up a lot of ideas
that had been rolling around in my head. You probably won’t read the article,
but that’s okay—I’m going to write about some of its points here.
First,
has anyone ever been to The World's Worst Web Site Ever?
GIFs
were big in the 90’s as web sites were first really sprouting up everywhere.
They were flashy and overused and generally, stylistically, terrible to look at. Pretty soon their usage became associated
with outdated web design, and they fell out of style. Yet, due to nostalgia, customizability,
and smaller size than video clips, they saw a resurgence in the late 2000’s all
the way up to today—where their usage has never been more prominent.
But
why are GIFs really so popular? The scholarly article I read described GIFs as polysemic—meaning,
having a capacity for multiple meanings. Add in the fact that many gifs are of people
reacting to something out of context—and we’ve evolved to be excellent at
reading facial expressions and emotions—and you’ve got yourself an extremely
versatile and ‘Media Rich’ medium for which to convey feelings and messages.
Completely unrelated GIFs can tell a story.
They can emote better than emoticons.
And they can draw their stock from decades ago—making old media relevant to new generations.
We live in a a decade where we can enhance our written language with snippets of media from all the way back to the onset of black and white videos. Despite the primitive nature of texting, we're able to send more information than ever thanks to the use of GIFs. What a time to be alive!
I remember when I was young looking at different gifs and thinking how ridiculous they were! Now gifs are seen much more in social media. I think that they still can be ridiculous but they are more technical and have a better picture than way before. It’s really interesting to see what is popular in social media at different times and how they have evolved. I know that some people text with gifs which I think is interesting. They think that a gif can get across what they want to say in a text. That's why I think that social media and technology has got a bit out of control. People are using these pictures that more quickly to tell someone something. I think that it is mostly used for laughs. I think that emojis are still used a lot but on Instagram I feel that I see gifs used more. They will show a basketball player doing something crazy on the court or a mom making a weird face and have something funny to say about it. There is now pages and people post just gifs each week. This was a really interesting blog post that made me think about the past and gifs that were popular back then!
ReplyDelete4 years ago I discover GIF's I really never knew exactly what where meant for. However I understand its use of it later on. Some online creators would use them to send a viral message. Others just for fun and share with friends and communities online.
ReplyDeleteToday online community of social media, Has adapted the feature in sharing GIF's to recipients and senders. When I discover WhatsApp surprisingly didn't support GIF's. Interestingly GIF's came out in 90's as you mention. And in the past that was my main communication app for people too contact me. I was desperate to use GIF's on my social media app. Until the day came.
Most GIF's may give different meanings for the individual encounter, For me I always use them for comedy and humor. But other individuals may use them. Only started this year to start using GIF's because few of my friends use them.