GIFs. With a hard “G.”

We love em, especially when they’re relatable, iconic, and not pronounced like a peanut butter brand.

I suppose for this field guide, what’s needed is a modern(ish) overview of how GIFs are used, where they’re used, and how set in our everyday social media usage they are.

I came across the article, “How Animated GIFs Are Taking Over” by Elise Moreau, which gives that overview that I was looking for. It gives examples of how GIFs are utilized by major sites like Tumblr and Buzzfeed (even though both are pretty terrible at the moment; y’all don’t wanna hear me rant about those two) and speculates how they might be utilized in the future, as “[s]ome say that GIFs are the future of photojournalism.”

I can see it happening. Honestly, GIFs are one of the most relatively benign media types I know of. Some claim they’re dumb, just the new meme, the new trend, but SHRUG I don’t particularly see it that way.

Welp. See y’all in the big post in a bit.

–Masooch