Knowing some of the history of GIFs has changed how I view them. The fact that they can are meant to be viewed on any platform and load quickly makes sense given how they are generally used, particularly as a type of humor on the internet. I often see GIFs used as "reaction images" on blogs and other websites, where only a type of image that loads quickly and gets its message across quickly would work. The stuttering quality that most GIFs utilize add a humorous tone to the imagery, adding to their usefulness as tools in comedy.
Because people have a tendency to give so little attention to things they see on the internet -- it's always clicking quickly to the next interesting thing, and not much pausing to absorb -- having a personal reaction to GIFs could be very appealing. It's a different experience from walking through a traditional gallery, where you're often not meant to know the intentions behind a work of art, it's only important to the creator. With GIFs, it's often the opposite. The "best" (most successful) GIFs are ones that many people can relate to, and the message in it is understood almost instantaneously. It's a little bit like having an inside joke with the entire internet, especially with GIFs that have become memes (such as lolcat). There is an entire website (knowyourmeme) for the purpose of figuring out where a meme came from.
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