How do GIFS make you feel?

[Absentmind]

While surfing the world wide web I found this neat little article discussing the history of GIFS. Its quite obvious that gifs play a massive role in Web-Revival design. But what makes them so alluring? Are they innocent and wholesome vessels of emotion? Are they a post-ironic statment? Or is it because they're just purely nostalgic and visions of the past, or all of the above

in contrast I also read THIS the other day. Calling GIFS "cringe" and "for boomers", noting in their declining popularity.

How do GIFS make you feel? What are your thoughts around them and these articles and whats your favorite GIF(s)! Let me know!

[xX_irkeneonz_Xx]

I love gifs and anyone who thinks they're cringe can fight me. I just don't always think they should be overused otherwise it becomes difficult to navigate at least for me personally, but websites loaded with gifs are still expressive on their own and I respect that.

I see them as just another tool for expression like any other graphics and sometimes they're just nice to look at and I at least never felt any irony when I used them because for me they're just fun. If I add video game sprites to my website or little pixel gifs it's because I like them and I think they look cool. There might be some nostalgia but in my case that nostalgia comes from liking the style more than anything and wanting to honor it.

I don't really have a particular favorite gif but there's a couple old internet Pokemon ones which are very beloved, and I also like pixel gifs in general as well as gifs from video games. There's also a couple nice technology ones I saved to use on my site later, and I love those detailed background gifs too.

[SilkSkull]

I love gifs and anyone who thinks they're cringe can fight me. I just don't always think they should be overused otherwise it becomes difficult to navigate at least for me personally, but websites loaded with gifs are still expressive on their own and I respect that.

I see them as just another tool for expression like any other graphics and sometimes they're just nice to look at and I at least never felt any irony when I used them because for me they're just fun. If I add video game sprites to my website or little pixel gifs it's because I like them and I think they look cool. There might be some nostalgia but in my case that nostalgia comes from liking the style more than anything and wanting to honor it.

I don't really have a particular favorite gif but there's a couple old internet Pokemon ones which are very beloved, and I also like pixel gifs in general as well as gifs from video games. There's also a couple nice technology ones I saved to use on my site later, and I love those detailed background gifs too.

I really agree with this but I also feel like GIFs are a double sided coin, much like regular reaction images or memes they can be very cringy, my best example of this in GIFs being discord. Opening the gifs section of discord brings all these "sO rElAtaBlE" GIFs that just feel really soulless and uninspired. On the other hand I adore sites that have old GIFs, especially ones that feel like they were made specifically for that site

[Memory]

I really agree with this but I also feel like GIFs are a double sided coin, much like regular reaction images or memes they can be very cringy, my best example of this in GIFs being discord. Opening the gifs section of discord brings all these "sO rElAtaBlE" GIFs that just feel really soulless and uninspired. On the other hand I adore sites that have old GIFs, especially ones that feel like they were made specifically for that site

I can agree with this. Sometimes they can be fun, but when overdone they can also get annoying.

On a side note, anyone who uses the word "boomer" as an insult has automatically lost my respect. Same with the word "virgin".

[creaturefeature]

i dont care if their cringe. I still think they´re fun.
Also whoever wrote this is full of it, because I have seen gen zers still actively using them, so i don't think they're gonna fall out of fashion any time soon

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I love GIFs! They're goofy and silly and charming and what's not to love about having a little animated picture to go along with your website?

My animation teacher said that making GIFs is also a very simple and no-stakes way to learn and practice animation, so that's another reason to love them!

[Anonicus]

I think Gifs are really fun!

I remember back in 2012/2013 when I first saw some gifs on Tumblr and was amazed at how smooth gifs looked these days. Of course, For the Retro stuff, I love em! They're comfy and unique and they feel really nice being around, Maybe it's the nostalgia but y'know.

[brisray]

GIFs are the bees knees! Some people loved them so much they made entire pages full of glittery, rotating, swirly, moving things that could make your eyes and brain hurt.

One of the best editors made for creating them was made by big, bad Microsoft - MS GIF Animator back in the days of Windows 95. I was making some just last night, but in Photoshop using its Timeline.

[JackFrost]

I like them a lot! It’s great that pictures can be animated on a site. I think the internet would be a lot less fun without them. It’s kinda hard finding them sometimes though.I use gifcities but even then you might not find the right one. It takes careful thought and appreciation to them.

[debleb]

i like em! they’re fun and add a bit of liveliness to a webpage that static images don’t. though i do think a lot of gif heavy websites could probably do with a flashing lights warning 

[Cele]

I love gifs. Though I find the Tumblr style gifsets quite boring (seen enough of those in my life) but gifs like ones with transparent backgrounds, someone's art/self-drawn, etc, now that's the stuff! I formed an appreciation for such stuff since they take effort to make.

[chezburgerplz]

I personally love GIFs and other various online graphics, i’m so bad about hoarding and using them to the extreme. For me alot of the charm is just collecting and showing off little things that represent you, or the things that you like. I love searching tumblr, deviantart, and gifcities for hoards of stamps, blinkies or whatever else I want and then pumping my website or other accounts with them. I wish more social medias allowed you to decorate your pages more. T___T

[Memory]

I wouldn't say gifs are for boomers - I am not a boomer and I love them and honestly it's mostly earlier millennials that would have been heavy users of them back in the late '90s.

For me gifs evoke this sense of capturing a moment or an essence of something in a 2 second cycle. Conveying a scene or an emotion or an action in a quick and easy to digest way. They look cool too imo - it's why I have gifs littering my sig, it's an easy way to convey an interest or a favourite thing really easily/quickly or to convey a feeling.

I personally love gifs!

[Memory]

Happy very happy!!! XD I luv decoring my pages with gifs That are cute or of luv! But i dont like putting a SHIT-TON of them  But afterall gifs are fun!  And fun MEANS Hapiness!!!!

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

GIFs are the bees knees! Some people loved them so much they made entire pages full of glittery, rotating, swirly, moving things that could make your eyes and brain hurt.

One of the best editors made for creating them was made by big, bad Microsoft - MS GIF Animator back in the days of Windows 95. I was making some just last night, but in Photoshop using its Timeline.

Inspired by this thread, I did a little GIF while trying to curate my latest virus infection:


I use GIMP to create them. Works pretty well :).

About this buisnmessinsider article: Smells to me like a maneuver to get the deal through. I don't have the feeling that GIFs are in decline - their reputation was in fact somewhat worse in the early mid 2000s: They were widely smiled on for creating artifacts through few supported colors, not supporting part-transparency, being big when compared to jpeg, lossy when compared to png, and boring when compared to flash and the many possibilities it offered (the hobbyist webdesigners, who were much more oriented towards professional standards back then, hated flash; but they also hated gifs). It would have been unthinkable to use a gif in an article in a news or journal site - I think the first time I've seen this was in the late 2010s), and users with animated avatars and banners were often "flamed" (provoked and taunted) over them.
 
I only do somewhat agree to "the medium is the message" - this might be true when regarding the macro-room, but on my individual level - I've seen terrible, pretty, practical GIFs over the years - they evoked various emotions, and I think they are as versatile as any other medium - yet I've seen few artists who managed to create gifs that really affected me. I think their full artistic potential is yet to be extrapolated.