Consider the role GIFs are playing in the election this year. If you consider the impact televised debates had on Nixon and Kennedy and follow that through to the point where 24 hour cable news coverage gave us Donald Trump as a serious candidate, technology has made politics more about appearance and image with each race. And this year it may have reached an extreme conclusion in a several second looping GIF.

    The best part? Presidential candidates are actually playing to the medium.



veen:

I feel like the same article could be written for early 2008 when you replace 'gifs' with 'rage comics'?

I don't think it's about literacy, it is more about emotion. Ties in nicely with your Pubski post recently about how explicit emotions becoming more popular. There's no subtlety, no nuance at all in most reaction gifs. It's just an easy, superficial way to show people how you feel.


posted 2982 days ago