Does anyone else hate GIFs?
They’re TAKING OVER online interaction, ambiguous, distracting and often downright irritating! GIFs have been around for a while now and perhaps you can tell that I’m not entirely a fan.
I get why people use them. I mean, if you’ve written a boring post or message, it’s cool to inject a bit of life with a moving image. And sometimes the repeatedly raised eyebrow or recurring nonchalant shrug of a famous actor or celebrity can express what you want to say far more eloquently than you can yourself by using actual words.
Then there’s the pop culture aspect. If you and your friends love a particular series, it must be very satisfying to share the highlights and in-jokes with each other at relevant points. I say “must be”, because I’m apparently far too old to see the attraction of this. In my day, we actually wrote out those Buffy quotes and sent them to each other by SMS!
Ok I admit that I’m being a grumpy OLD person here. GIFs are new and haven’t always been part of my online experience, and it’s well-known that when you get older, you resent the encroachment of so-called new-fangled features on your familiar territory.
However, I also have some actual reasons for disliking GIFs. See whether you agree:
1. People go overboard
I’ve encountered posts that seem to be nothing but GIFs. If anyone here is a member of Goodreads, you’ll know what I mean. Some of the book reviews in that community seem to be comprised of nothing but GIFs. And it’s not just there that they are overused. Buzzfeed posts, Messenger and Whatsapp, the list goes on… Which brings me to my next complaint:
2. An excuse for being lazy
In some places it seems have become acceptable to post a GIF in place of writing an actual message. Or posting any meaningful content. GIFs act as fillers, padding out what would otherwise be a a very flimsy excuse for a message or post. I think it’s fine to pad out a post with stuff that you have created yourself, for example if you post artwork or photographs. Or even a short video made of clips that you have cut together yourself. GIFs are none of those things.
3. IRRITATING
I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of TV in general, so a lot of clever references are probably lost on me because I don’t recognise the clip that’s been used to create the GIF. But even so, it’s so terrible ANNOYING to watch a tiny clip of someone repeating the same expression or gesture over and over and over and over and over and over…
Oh and it’s even worse if the actor or actress in the GIF is someone that I find irritating anyway (I’m looking at you Camaron Diaz, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler)
4. Distracting
The human eye is naturally drawn to movement. Heck, that’s part of the reason for using a GIF in the first place, because it adds some life and movement to a page. But it’s hard to concentrate on reading the post when there’s a repetitive, flashy GIF playing over and over just above the paragraph I’m trying to get through. Unlike an embedded video, you can’t pause or deactivate a GIF.
We complained about the flashing advertisements that used to plague our web pages before ad-blockers became a thing, but honestly I don’t see how GIFs are much different.
5. Ambiguous
I can’t be the only one who’s received a GIF in a message from someone and wondered to myself “What on earth were they trying to communicate with that?” Sometimes it’s hard to interpret the message intended in Jennifer Aniston’s wide-eyed, fake smile. Maybe the person sending it didn’t have a firm message in mind either? Could be they simply chose a GIF at random?? Which brings me back to point number 2!
6. Take up too much data/memory
Until I got around to installing an SD card in my phone, I used to curse the people who sent memes and GIFs because they took up so much precious memory in my phone. Yes of course I can delete them, but there’s no easy way to select only the meaningless GIFs while keeping all the meaningful photos and other media that I actually want to save.
Am I totally alone here? Does anyone else feel the same about GIFs? Or do you have a different opinion?
...but I’m not going to, so HA!
that's how I feel about most use of video, lol... but gifs and video are likely going to take up a larger and larger space online, might as well get used to it :)
I think you're probably right. Here's hoping that they end up SUPPORTING quality content rather than replacing it.
Ohhh yeah..they've become an easy source of replies from friends of mine that can't think quick enough to say anything funny/witty on their own..guilty of using them myself when I go full troll, only when I go full troll!
Well the whole point of trolling is to be totally irritating, so GIFs are perfect. And that proves my point nicely I think!