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Not to be confused with reaction video.
Reaction gifs can be used to express a wide variety of emotions.

A reaction gif is a type of animated GIF used in online communication. The short, looped video clips, posted in response to text in online forums and comment threads, are used to convey emotions or other non-verbal expression. Social media platforms and messaging applications often include reaction gif libraries or reaction gif keyboards.

Description and use

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Nobody:
Me:

Reaction gifs are short, looped video clips used in online conversations. Images are encoded using the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). Multiple frames are included and are played back in sequence. Gifs sequence together multiple images, forming an animation that loops indefinitely.[1]

GIFs are an example of remix culture. They are illustrations and small clips from films used for personal expressions in online conversations.[2] GIFs are commonly taken from an online video form such as film, T.V. or YouTube videos.[3] Each clip usually lasts for about 3 seconds[3] and is "looped, extended and repeated."[4] GIFs take a mass media sample and reimagines, or remixes, its meaning from the original context to use it as a form of personal expression in a different context.[5] They are used throughout various media platforms.[3]

Creators of gifs use graphics software such as Photoshop. Most users of gifs do not make their own, but rather use gif libraries or look up the gifs in user-generated databases.[6]

In their basic form, reaction gifs are close-ups of a person's face in the process of expression.[6] The videos are used to convey a range of emotions. ranging from joy, disgust, confusion, outrage, surprise. non-verbal, gestural communication eye-rolling, laughter, spit-take,

Soundless versions of reaction gifs are often captioned.

Reaction gifs place attention on a single response, feeling or visual action, making them one of the more concise forms of the gif.[7] By looping a single gesture, reaction gifs act as an expression of emotion or affect.[7] The development of rhetorical styles around using gifs allows users to provide a visual demonstration of their reaction to a situation or their feelings.[7] Reaction gifs allow for expressions that are ill-suited to text.[7]

Sha, 2016: Gifs are "a visual language unto themselves, an emotive vocabulary made out of culture."[7]

Context

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Gifs are stripped of their original context and placed in a new context, producing a chain of reinterpretation.[1] While an animated gif alone may express meaning, text added to gifs often takes a complementary role, sometimes serving to anchor the imagery or to create new intertextual layers.[8]

The meaning of a reaction gif may depend on the context in which it is used as well as the person who is using it. Therefore a single reaction gif has malleability in its utility

The looping of a gif allows for the entirety of a movement to be expressed. By showcasing the moment immediately prior to an expression, the gif may allow for a continuous resetting of the emotion. Separated from its source material, a gif can express an unrelated, self-contained narrative of its own.[7] Seamless looping of gifs can create the impression of infinity

While reaction gifs are most often used in response to posts, users may also choose to provide the impetus for their reaction alongside their reaction. The abbreviation MRW (meaning "my reaction when"), used in combination with a real or imagined scenario, may precede a reaction gif. Similarly, the memetic template "Nobody: ___, Me: ___" and its variations often precedes a reaction gif.

Within a subset of the Tumblr community, reaction gifs are used to respond to content that is considered ridiculous or insulting. The reaction gifs are used in place of rude or aggressive utterances and are reserved for strangers and those who aren't part of the community.[9]

History

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Background

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Smiley gifs of the 1990s were precursors to reaction gifs.

Over the history of the Internet, personal expressions in online conversations have been aided by pictorial representations. Early emoticons progressed from smiley face emoji[10] to more complex animations and short videos clips such as gifs.

Emoticons were inspired by computer scientist Scott Fahlman's idea of using faces in language. Graphical representations of the originally text-based emoticon appeared online as .gif files in the laste 1990s.[11][12][13][14]

1990s: Early gifs

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The Graphics Interchange Format, created at CompuServe in 1987, was similar to other existing file formats but had the ability to be looped. Early gifs on the Internet were often simple images of waving flags or flames. Due to their ability to create a moving image with limited size, they were adopted early on. In 1995 and 1996, the popularity of gifs spread as Netscape and other browsers were able to automatically animate gifs. By the late 1990s, gifs were falling out of favor, being associated with the early versions of the web that were at the time being replaced with "Web 2.0". As websites were able to handle more video, gifs fell out of favor. Rumors of a legal battle over the ownership of GIF by led to a large abandonment of the file formet, with users migrating to PNG and other open-source alternatives.

Late 2000s: Gif resurgence

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Tools and websites geared around user-generated gif creation developed over time.

Nostalgia for the early Internet, the "Ugly Internet", led to adoption of the gif by certain Internet subcultures. Fan bases especially.

Reaction gifs were frequently used on 2chan and 4chan as part of forum games.

2007, 2008, repopularized niche forums

By 2011 reaction gifs were being used on reddit (specifically the subreddit r/reactiongifs) and Tumblr. In the first half of the 2010s, reaction gifs gained widespread use and were considered a "lingua franca of the Internet."[15]

economical expression[15] indispensable shorthand[15]

Fans in online communities often make gifs or gif sets about their fandoms. Gifs or gif sets can be used to create non-canon scenarios mixing actual content or adding in related content. Gif sets can also capture minute expressions or moments.[16] Fans use gifs to show how they feel about characters or events in their fandom; these are called reaction gifs.[17] Stan Twitter

2010s: Commodification and commercialization

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Twitter began allowing images and gifs in feeds in October 2013. Black Twitter was an early adopter and popularizer of reaction gifs.[6]

By 2014 apps were being created for reaction gifs.[18]

Giphy[19][20][21]

The messaging service WhatsApp added gif functionality in 2016.[22]

Sports franchises produce sets of reaction gifs for use by their fan bases.

Social media platforms and messaging applications often include reaction gif libraries or reaction gif keyboards. Google released a gif-friendly keyboard in 2016.[23]

common in texting as well.[6]

Digital blackface

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From blackface: Writers such as Lauren Michele Jackson and Victoria Princewill have criticized non-black people sharing animated images of black people or black-skinned emojis, calling the practice "digital blackface".[24][25]

Digital media provide opportunities to inhabit and perform black identity without actually painting one's face. In 1999, Adam Clayton Powell III coined the term "high-tech blackface" to refer to stereotypical portrayals of black characters in video games.[26] David Leonard writes that "The desire to 'be black' because of the stereotypical visions of strength, athleticism, power and sexual potency all play out within the virtual reality of sports games." Leonard's argument suggests that players perform a type of identity tourism by controlling black avatars in sports games.[27] Phillips and Reed argue that this type of blackface "is not only about whites assuming black roles, nor about exaggerated performances of blackness for the benefit of a racist audience. Rather, it is about performing a version of blackness that constrains it within the boundaries legible to white supremacy."[28]

Exhibition

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Reaction gifs were featured at an exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York in 2014.[15] Curator Jason Eppink engaged members of Reddit to identify frequently used reaction GIFs. Thirty-seven GIFs and their translations, provided by Redditors, were selected for the exhibition, which examined the increasingly popular use of the animated GIF as a form of non-verbal communication.[29][30]

Research

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"transitioned from a user-driven format within niche digital cultures to a visual device with institutional applications and investment."[7] "the GIF is a remarkably dexterous, malleable, and versatile file format that is central to digital cultures and communication. This malleability and versatility are key to the GIF’s capacity for interpretive flexibility; the separation of GIFs from their original texts imbues them with multiple layers of meaning that are not universally accessible to all audiences. This, we argue, pro-vides the GIF with resistant potential: similar to double-entendre, parody, camp, and other types of layered texts, GIFs can be (and often are) used to communicate hidden meanings in plain sight."[7] "performance of affect and the demonstration of cultural knowledge"[7] GIFs are polysemic communication tools[7]


Research on the use of GIFs has recently started, by separating them from traditional memes. Albin Wagener notably writes that "GIFs probably represent an entirely new generation of communicative systemic signs that are capable to reenact emotions and transfer the detailed feeling of a mental state: they are completely postdigital, and they work as extensions of users’ emotions and cognitive expressions—without having to use complex sentences".[31]

Notable reaction GIFs

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Types: "eating popcorn"

  • Michael Jackson eating popcorn
  • CitizenKaneClapping.gif[15]
  • Homer Simpson disappearing into bushes
  • "Blinking White Guy", a gif of video producer Drew Scanlon, became an Internet meme in February 2017 after becoming viral on Twitter. The reaction GIF, which originated from an episode of Unprofessional Fridays in 2013, was commented on by Mashable for its versatility in being used as a reaction in tweets.[32] The meme has resulted in multiple tweets accruing hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes while Cosmopolitan magazine called it "the most relatable meme ever."[33] In interviews with Buzzfeed and The Guardian, Scanlon commented on his approval of the meme and noted how people separate the real person behind it, "I do feel fairly removed.”[34][35]
  • Nodding guy[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b Ging, Debbie; Siapera, Eugenia (2019). Gender Hate Online: Understanding the New Anti-Feminism. Springer. p. 181. ISBN 978-3-319-96226-9.
  2. ^ Huber, Linda (25 February 2015). "Remix Culture & the reaction GIF". Gnovis: Journal of Communicaton, Culture, and Technology – via Georgetown University.
  3. ^ a b c Kanai, Akane (2015). "Jennifer Lawrence, Remixed: Approaching Celebrity Through DIY Digital Culture". Celebrity Studies. 6 (3): 322–340. doi:10.1080/19392397.2015.1062644.
  4. ^ McKay, Sally (2005). "Affect of Animated GIFs". Art & Education.
  5. ^ Angelan (2012-12-29). "Digital Gesture: Rediscovering Cinematic Movement Through GIF". Refractory.
  6. ^ a b c d Iles, Chrissie (2016). Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016. Yale University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-300-22187-9.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Miltner, Kate M.; Highfield, Tim (17 August 2017). "Never Gonna GIF You Up: Analyzing the Cultural Significance of the Animated GIF". Social Media + Society. 3 (3): 205630511772522. doi:10.1177/2056305117725223.
  8. ^ Thomas, Kayley (2013). "Revisioning the Smiling Villain: Imagetexts and Intertextual Expression in Representations of the Filmic Loki on Tumblr". Transformative Works and Cultures (13). doi:10.3983/twc.2013.0474.
  9. ^ Katrin, Tildenberg; Cindy, Tekobbe (3 April 2018). "The Things We Can't Say in Selfies – Narrating the Self through GPOY, Reaction-GIF and 'Current status' images". AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. 4 (15). ISSN 2162-3317.
  10. ^ South, Julian (September 21, 2017). "A Q&A with the Carnegie Mellon professor who created the emoticon, 35 years later". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  11. ^ Rene Mahfood. "Emoji Users Are Shaping The Future Of Messaging". The Light Magazine.
  12. ^ "With the smiley, "we get to relax everybody"". Europe 1. February 4, 2016.
  13. ^ Jack Quann (July 17, 2015). "A picture paints a thousand words: Today is World Emoji Day". News Talk.
  14. ^ Souvik Das (August 4, 2016). "Emoting Out Loud: The Origin of Emojis". Digit.
  15. ^ a b c d e Moore, Bo (26 February 2014). "Who Better to Pick the Best Reaction GIFs in History Than Redditors?". Wired.
  16. ^ Cain, Bailey Knickerbocker. "The New Curators: Bloggers, Fans And Classic Cinema On Tumblr". M.A. Thesis. University Of Texas, 2014.
  17. ^ Petersen, Line Nybro (1 June 2014). "Sherlock fans talk: Mediatized talk on tumblr". Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook. 12 (1): 87–104. doi:10.1386/nl.12.1.87_1.
  18. ^ "The best thing about iOS 8? Reaction gif keyboards". The Independent. 12 September 2014.
  19. ^ Limer, Eric (15 May 2020). "Why After 30 Years, the GIF Is Still Unkillable". Popular Mechanics.
  20. ^ Douglas, Nick (28 August 2017). "Giphy's New View Count Tool Will Make Reaction GIFs More Bland". Lifehacker.
  21. ^ Cox, Kate (15 May 2020). "All your reaction GIFs now belong to Facebook, as it buys Giphy for $400M". Ars Technica.
  22. ^ Titcomb, James (7 November 2016). "How to send GIFs in WhatsApp". The Telegraph.
  23. ^ Feinberg, Ashley (17 May 2016). "Stock Reaction Gifs Are for Idiots". Gizmodo.
  24. ^ Jackson, Lauren Michele (August 2, 2017). "We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs". Teen Vogue. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  25. ^ Princewill, Victoria (August 14, 2017). "Is it OK to use black emojis and gifs?". BBC. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  26. ^ Marriot, Michael (October 21, 1999). "Blood, Gore, Sex and Now: Race". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  27. ^ Leonard, David. "High Tech Blackface – Race, Sports Video Games and Becoming the Other". Intelligent Agent. 4 (4).
  28. ^ Phillips, Amanda; Reed, Alison (2013). "Additive Race: Colorblind Discourses of Realism in Performance Capture Technologies". Digital Creativity. 24 (2).
  29. ^ The Reaction GIF: Moving Image as Gesture, Museum of the Moving Image
  30. ^ Ulaby, Neda (9 May 2014). "Hard 'G' Or Soft, The GIF Takes Its Place As A Modern Art Form". NPR. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  31. ^ Wagener, Albin (2020-07-06). "The Postdigital Emergence of Memes and GIFs: Meaning, Discourse, and Hypernarrative Creativity". Postdigital Science and Education. doi:10.1007/s42438-020-00160-1. ISSN 2524-4868.
  32. ^ "This salty reaction GIF is the internet's best new meme". Mashable. February 17, 2017. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  33. ^ "17 Tweets That Prove That GIF of a Dude Blinking Is the Most Relatable Meme Ever". Cosmopolitan. February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  34. ^ "We Talked To The "White Guy" From The White Guy Blinking Meme And He's Blown Away By It". Buzzfeed. February 22, 2017. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  35. ^ "Giant Bombcast 469: Meme Money, Meme Problems". The Guardian. February 23, 2017. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  36. ^ Locker, Melissa (10 July 2019). "The World Has Learned the Man Behind the Nodding Guy Meme". Time.

Further reading

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