Armchair BEA 2014: Saying It GIF Style

Today is the day to talk about something that you feel we have missed or that you want to spend a little extra time chatting about. Ideas include, but are not limited to: a genre that does not fit into those featured earlier this week; logistics, such as blogging resources, procedures, or advice; or something completely fun with book to movie adaptations or favorite blogging games, features, memes, events, and/or activities. It’s your freebie day to choose what you like!

GIF or Graphics Interchange Format is a "bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage in the internet due to its wide support and portability"1. People are constantly arguing whether it's pronounced as GIF, "g" is pronouced like in "goat" , or JIF like that peanut butter. Frankly, it doesn't matter how you pronounce as long as you know what it is, not just the acronym, and you know how to use it or make it for those who are tech savvy. Steve Wilhite, one of the creators, said that the intended pronunciation is "JIF" with a soft "g".
Well now, I think you understand why the peanut butter is my topic of choice this Friday - because I love peanut butter in my kare-kare! That creaminess in the stew... Yum! Of course I am also talking about the rising prevalence of the use of GIF images in blog posts particularly in reviews. Because I had this very formal notion when doing reviews before, I thought that including moving images in my reviews lessen the "seriousness" of what I was talking about. That was some years ago and now I am like who cares this is my blog and I'll GIF if I want to.
Particularly because sometimes it's hard to convey the exact feelings and thoughts that you have about a book. Describing how you feel and how you look could only get so far and some of us are not comfortable with doing videos. Reaction GIFs are useful particularly when you're:

Fangirling

Having feels

Lamenting evil authors

or just want a dancing Dumbledore

You could even do your whole review using GIFs. I think it's more fun and I could add to my GIF archive to use on my tumblr posts. *huge grin*

Do you use GIFs on your posts? What's your favorite reaction GIF?

11 comments:

JillianMay 30, 2014 12:06 PM
I love gifs and that Snape and Dumbledore one has always been a favorite!!
Bookish WhimsyMay 30, 2014 1:15 PM
I don't use gifs in my reviews, but I love using them in other posts - it makes it more fun! But probably the biggest reason I don't use them a lot is because I feel like I don't have a large enough collection. I need to find more! :)
Lisa PottgenMay 30, 2014 4:00 PM
I have never used them, at least partly because I wouldn't even know where to look to find them. But that dancing Dumbledore is great! I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair.

Lisa @Just Another Rabid Reader
Library EducatedMay 30, 2014 8:06 PM
There's a GIF and it's from one of the LOTR movies and it's Gandalf dancing at a party and it says at the bottom "the shire can't handle me right now" or something like that and it cracks me up EVERY TIME.
Allison BruningMay 30, 2014 10:11 PM
I have never used them before but want to.
Sassy CattMay 31, 2014 4:12 AM
I use jpegs, but that's because I work with Photoshop. Supposedly each time a jpeg is opened the file degrades a slight bit. That's why GIFS are better for the internet...but I still use jpegs.
AnonymousMay 31, 2014 4:25 AM
I don't dislike gifs because they're "unprofessional" or anything. I say, it's your blog, express yourself however you want.

But I do skip over posts that use a ton of gifs because they give me a headache (and some have even made me nauseated). If you just use one or space them out with enough text between them, I can just scroll until they're off my screen. But if I constantly have that repetitive motion in my periphery as I'm trying to read the text... it just doesn't work for me.

If gifs came with a pause button, I would be a much happier blog reader.
The Relentless ReaderMay 31, 2014 6:52 AM
I love a good gif. (And I don't care what the creator says, Jif is peanut butter, ha!) I use them now and then and I've done reviews in ALL gifs before when words wouldn't do the book justice. They can be fun, if used correctly! (In fact, I've got my monthly wrap-up coming tomorrow and there are a few gifs in it!)
DoingDeweyMay 31, 2014 9:09 AM
Using gifs is just not something I've gotten the hang of. I do enjoy reviews with gifs in them though, as long as there's enough text too :)
Katrina @ Bookish ThingsMay 31, 2014 12:03 PM
I haven't used many. But I've wanted to incorporate them into my reviews. Sometimes they just express the emotions better.
Alisha (MyNeedToRead)May 31, 2014 12:40 PM
I haven't yet incorporated GIFs into reviewing, but I do quite enjoy looking at reviews with GIFs. They're inevitably much more fun and/or amusing, and don't take themselves too seriously. I dig.