Gifs for me are used mostly through text messaging. I tend to not use them as much, but my parents have recently figured out how to send them over text and love to use them. Whenever they text me I end up receiving one or more gifs which is very humorous and adorable. The gifs I usually receive are very loving and cute or funny. They deliver a feeling or a voice through a text because sometimes you can’t understand the tone someone is using when they are texting you, but adding a gif to it makes their tone more clear. I think they can make a conversation come to life and seem more real. I don’t think I have ever received a gif that made me sad now that I think of it, so I like receiving and using them to add some light or humor into a conversation. For example when my mom texts me that she misses me, she will send a gif of a bear hugging another bear. If she is watching a show she will send me a gif from the show. Sometimes they are more random and that is what can make them funny. The other day my dad texted me about my classes and then randomly sent a gif of a fox. He did this because we have foxes that live on our property so it is a common discussion in our family. So because of that, the gif was funny more than random. I understand that even though I haven’t received a harmful gif, in the sense that someone was sending it to make me feel bad or embarrassed, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen.
Cinema Media Studies 