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