How billions of tiny animated images took over our screens—and changed the way we communicate
You get a text from your friend Max: My mom said I can get a pet tarantula!
Clearly, Max is excited. Then he texts you a GIF—a silent, looping video clip—of a goat jumping on a bed.
That’s when you understand: Max isn’t just excited; he is bouncing-up-and-down, beside-himself-with-joy euphoric. To tell him how happy you are for him, you text back a GIF of cheering Minions.
Honestly—how did people communicate before GIFs?
Emojis 2.0
Technically speaking, a GIF—pronounced “giff” or “jiff”—is a type of file for digital images. (GIF stands for “graphics interchange format.”) Unlike other types of image files, a GIF can be animated, creating a short, soundless video that plays in an endless loop.
Billions of GIFs are shared every day. We use them in texts and group chats. Employees use them in work emails. Celebrities and politicians use them in tweets. Media companies like BuzzFeed use GIFs in news stories.
Experts say that GIFs have become ubiquitous not simply because they’re entertaining, but because they help us express ourselves. “[GIFs] allow you to be deliberate and detailed when communicating,” explains Danny Chang, the director of partnerships at GIPHY, a company that curates and maintains the world’s largest collection of GIFs. “You could text your friend ‘I’m excited!’ or you could search excited on GIPHY and pick the exact version of excited you’re feeling.” In other words, GIFs can help us to more accurately express our emotions when the person we are talking to can’t see or hear us.
You may be thinking that emojis do this too—and they do. But GIFs are emojis 2.0. Because they involve movement, and often real people, they can add more nuance and emotion to our digital conversations than emojis can.
Then and Now
The GIF was created in 1987 by a computer programmer named Steve Wilhite. That means GIFs have been around since before the smartphone. In fact, they’re older than Google, Facebook, Snapchat—and Wi-Fi.
Wilhite created the GIF because he needed a way to display graphics that wouldn’t take up a lot of space on computers. But the first GIFs were quite different from GIFs today. Up until the early 2000s, GIFs were static images or images with simple animation—for example, a word that spun around or a symbol that flashed on and off. GIFs were mostly used by website creators.
Then, around 2005, when YouTube came along and photo-editing software like Photoshop became more widely available, GIFs started to change. People began converting video clips into the GIF format, and the GIF as we know it was born. In 2012, Oxford Dictionaries made GIF the word of the year.
Today, thanks to smartphones and social media, GIFs are easy to use. Dozens of apps like GIPHY make it a cinch to find and share our favorites. Twitter and Facebook have GIF buttons. iPhone and Android keyboards come with GIF search engines built right in. GIFs have also become simpler to make. In the past, GIF-making required photo-editing software. Now, several companies have created apps that automate the process so that anyone can do it.
A Tool for Self-Expression
GIFs are an important tool in our digital conversations these days. But they do more than enable us to convey emotion. They help us express who we are and what we’re interested in. GIFs come from so many different parts of pop culture—movies, TV shows, music videos, YouTube—that there is something for everyone. For example, a Harry Potter fan can express excitement with a GIF of Hermione cheering in the Quidditch stands. Someone into comics can express the same emotion with a GIF of Groot dancing. A bummed-out Pokémon fan can choose a tearful Pikachu, while a basketball fan can send a frowning LeBron James.-
What GIFs express your personality? If you can’t find the perfect one, you can always make your own. Maybe you can ask Max if his new tarantula can be the star.
This article was originally published in the November 2020 issue.
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