In defence of gifs

In defence of gifsFriday 25th April 2014

“Admit It, GIFs Suck. So Why Won't They Die?” asked website Fast Company this week.

The piece argues that the gif is an old format that’s been replaced by better, newer ways to share images. So how come the gif continues to be so ubiquitous?

Well, because – in this producer’s humble opinion – nothing can capture a moment like a gif. There are gifs for every emotion, from Mashable’s 25 rage GIFs or 25 GIFs to express your joy. (Soon, they’ll even be able to capture your own emotion: a new app, Selfie360, auto-rotates a phone to turn a selfie into a gif.)

Just check out Tumblr, the home of the gif (though Pinterest is now rolling out support for the format,Tech Crunch reports), and Buzzfeed, which has built its media empire on listicles like “23 GIFs That Will Teach You A Damn Thing For Once In Your Life.” They can even be beautiful.

Journalist Ann Friedman writes that gifs are more compelling than a static photo, and more immediate than video. “Like the Twitter hashtag, which has transitioned from a functional way of sorting content to its own part of speech, the animated gif has gone from a simple file type to its own mode of expression. GIFs have grown up, and they are everywhere right now.”

Asked for her favourite GIFs, Wireless producer Elle Hunt responded with this series of Nicki Minaj.

Senior Producer Megan Whelan's express similar emotions.