When I was a kid, we did not have mobile phones to entertain us. Our friends would visit our home to play a cooperative game of video together. And to see the latest film release VHS, we had to leave the House to rent a movie from the store.
But you know what entertain me then and continues to entertain me today? The animated GIF. Yes, those looping of images sprinkled around the Internet. Those that you look at hypnosis repeat silently in cycles of three seconds until that someone clicks on your shoulder and you emerges awkwardly to explain why you look at an image of quiet a cat chasing a laser time and time again. (If you see not the jackpot of scrambling awkwardly after the red, give it a minute to load.)
Not that this happened to me, of course. * Hum *
GIF, or "graphics interchange format", has been around since 1987, but only in the last year, it hit a level of ubiquity of online pop culture. Past the time where animated GIFs are limited to flashing kittens and the Rainbow explosions (like those I'd bling my website with). They have worked their way into the most epic moments of the 2012 Olympic Games, our films and our presidential elections. They help us to see art a little differently. They pick us up when we feel a bit low. And we can just not enough to look at the animals to do stupid things.
So now, you can understand why my inner 12-year-old was particularly excited by the news that the Oxford Dictionary selected GIF as Word of the year (2012). I mean, this is an event that sums up the cultural home of the year in one word. A word that represents our interests, fears and hopes. How powerful is it?
GIF has defeated some of the most notable words of the year: superstorm, an unusually destructive storm such as Sandy hurricane in the United States. YOLO is an acronym which means "you only live once," popularized by teenagers and young adults. (In fact, it has come and gone in popularity. Children are reportedly sick to hear it). GIF even defeated Super CAP, or a huge political action Committee that can raise unlimited funds to influence an election.
Some details for you word nerds: OK yeah so it's an acronym - leaving some Word of irreducible year a little upset. In addition, GIF here is seen as a verb, which means "create a GIF file (an image or a video sequence, especially concerning an event)." (source) You remember how the presidential debates were "live GIFfed"?
Acronym or not, it is a "word" of pleasure. And, firstly, allow me to stress how the GIF has an impact on our lives as the people of the Internet by sharing some of best GIFs from this year. I hope they will back you if you feel that, no, always impossible to use 'GIF' in your word game because it is an acronym. (You're not alone: I'm a little pouting too.)
Without further ADO-
What are some of your favorite animated GIFs?
Lauren is a fan of continuous play. She expresses her love of the female characters of the pop-culture of costumes at conventions, marketing Internet consulting, playing the clarinet and saxophone, practitioner of martial arts, and geeking around tea guard is busy the rest of the time. Find more of his shenanigans on Twitter! or Google +.
No comments:
Post a Comment