Some people love adding gifs to their reviews, and some never do. If you've spent any amount of time reading anything on my blog, you may have managed to glean my opinion on gifs. I'm pretty subtle about it. If not, I'll tell you now: I LOVE THEM. I love throwing in a little dancing cat to liven up a review.
I like expressing my bookish rage by having Alan Rickman flip a table for me.
Most likely you won't be reading this at all if you can't stand giffy reviews, because, you know, that's sort of my thing. So I'm asking this Yea or Nay more as, what type of review do you prefer writing? (Or reading, I guess. I won't be offended if you say you prefer the non-giffy, I assure you!)
Arguments I've heard non-giffy people use for remaining non-giffy:
It distracts from the pretty, pretty words I spent so long putting together. People tend to just look at the gifs and ignore the actual review.
I have no idea how to use them. I'd feel like a fraud if I tried.
It just doesn't fit the tone of most of my reviews.
Arguments I've heard pro-giffy people use for being giffy:
Gifs are fun! Look at all those cute moving pictures. Readers like the cute moving pictures. Being giffy is spiffy.
It DOES suit the tone of my reviews.
It adds perfect punctuation to my more extreme emotions.
It breaks up the text on the page.
I've got hundreds of gifs saved on my computer and I've got to use them SOMEHOW (maybe that's just my logic).
So what reasons do you have for using or not using gifs? And if you're not a reviewer, which do you prefer reading and why?
Giffy reviews: Yea or Nay?
Posts
I'm more nay gifs on my blog but that's because I'm lazy. Maybe post graduation I'll start to do them but right now I'm nay gifs. HOWEVER, I do love to read reviews with them in it.
ReplyDeleteI have reviews that I'll add gifs to and others which remain gif free. It just depends on the tone of the review and if a gif would actually work. Definitely love them in other people's reviews though.
ReplyDeleteThat dancing cat gif is bonkers! Love it!
I live for that dancing cat!
DeleteYEA GIFFY! I love putting them in because not only does it break up a lot of text (I'm in the crowd of readers where I like when there isn't too much text on a page), but it's also very fun to look at it. Or if it's a rant review, like you said, I get to have another person do something crazy for me. It just is there to be able to express my emotions more. So I like to not only read them in a review, but put them in myself :)
ReplyDeleteSunny @ Blue Sky Bookshelf
I think that's why I started putting gifs in-- to break up the text. I tend to skim big blocks of text or skip them entirely.
DeleteI love reading giffy reviews. I don't write them myself all that often, pretty much only when I'm inspired, which basically means I have one specific gif in mind that I MUST USE, and then I add more because just one seems silly. I probably do one every month or so. Maybe someday I'll do more, maybe not.
ReplyDeleteI like your giffy posts AND your non giffy.I know what you mean about having a specific gifset in mind. For instance, this post was actually INSPIRED by the two gifts at the top. It got me thinking.
Deletegifs don't really fit the tone of my reviews--they tend to be more serious & straight-forward(I think I've used a gif twice in about 30 reviews). I do like reading gif-reviews if they're used well, though. I think another con for gifs can be they can take awhile to load if your readers have slow internet connections. I know when I visit my family I won't read reviews with gifs because we live in the country and they just really slow down blogs and websites. Otherwise, though, I'm all for them.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of slow connections!
DeleteI like reading reviews with gifs, but at the same time, I will admit that they distract me from reading the review. I'll be reading and then a picture pops up and I'm like, "OHH LOOK AT THE SHINY" and kind of forget about the review. As you know, I never put gifs in my reviews. One, I don't know how to use them that well and two, for me they add humor and I'm a bit more serious in my reviews.
ReplyDeleteI love your non-giffy reviews! :)
DeleteAlso, you're right, they can be distracting. Sometimes my eye jumps straight past all the text to the next gif, which is way I at least try to integrate the gifs into the flow of the review.
DeleteI enjoy reading reviews with gifs, but sometimes they can be distracting. On the other hand, I love when discussion posts have gifs in them, it just seems to really make them better since we are usually expressing a lot of emotion in them. I don't use any gifs in my reviews, for me it takes way too long to find just the right one, and it just doesn't work for me to put them in my reviews. I have however just started using them in my discussion/ranting posts. So in the end, even though I don't put gifs in my reviews it doesn't stop me from reading other people that use them, if done right they really do add a little something.
ReplyDeleteWell said :)
DeleteI don't use gifs in my reviews, but honestly I don't mind them. Most of the time they're really fun and add humor to a review.
ReplyDeleteFun and humorous is the best reason to gif, I think!
DeleteI personally don't use GIFs because it's just not my style. And imagine how many times I'll abuse a particular GIF if I do. :P However, I love it when bloggers include GIFs on their reviews because it's fun.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to refrain from reusing the same gif. On the other hand, I have saved gifs I've been DYING to use and have never gotten the opportunity!
DeleteI love reading reviews with gifs( especially yours :P), but I usually don't use them myself in my reviews. Mainly because I don't have gifs saved on my computer and it takes me a LONG time to find a specific gif to fit my review. Plus, my reviews are usually serious, so it's hard to be humorous AND serious ;) But, like I said, I love reading other people's reviews with them! And they don't distract me from the actual review, they just seem to show more emotion!
ReplyDeleteThank you, lady! See, I try to be serious, but then the jokes come out and I get a gif idea and then the seriousness just evaporates, as always. More emotion is exactly what this particular giffy reviewer is going for!
DeleteI love reading giffy reviews, especially yours, because I'm always in awe at how perfectly your gifs punctuate your thoughts. I, on the other hand, would LIKE to write better giffy reviews, but my gif-searching skills are sadly lackluster.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you're talking about. I LOVE your giffy reviews!
DeleteA couple of my favorite bloggers (you included here, of course) use them but sometimes they give me a headache or make me feel slightly motion sick depending on what they are. Having said that, they can really capture the tone of a review and some are really cute. I don't use them in my reviews because I just don't know how. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMotion sick! Gah, I hope my blog hasn't been making you PHYSICALLY ILL. I assure you that is (mostly) not my intention!
DeleteAnd you guys, the language of gifs is not some crazy difficult thing you must have a Ph.D. to learn. You could do it! But you don't have to. I love non-giffy reviews just as much as the giffy.
Bring them on! I think they add an extra element, "oomph" if you will, that makes the emotion and the feeling behind the words even more clear! SO, GIF all the way!
ReplyDelete*waves giffy pom poms*
DeleteI honestly do not know where to get GIFs, first of all! And I can never seem to make them fit right into my reviews. I leave the GIF additions to reviews to the people who are good at them - like you!
ReplyDeleteI get my gifs from Google image search and Tumblr. Literally, you can find anything there. If you don't have a bunch saved on your computer, like I do, then you need a vague (or exact) gif idea in mind when you search.
DeleteAwww, thank you.
I feel like a fraud if I use gifs. I'm not saying people that do use them are frauds because they aren't. I just feel like I'd be copying them and then comes the whole which gif do I pick for said review? No, I'll leave the gifs to those who use them and I enjoy them in other reviews. :D
ReplyDeleteI feel like I should teach a class in gifs. All I'd do is take all you stressed non-giffers, sit you down, and say, "Gifs... ARE FOR ALL. You can all be giffy if you want! It's easy!" Because seriously, anybody can gif. Even you, I promise :)
DeleteI really like this post and while I generally enjoy seeing gifs on a reviews I don't use them myself partly because it just doesn't fit with how I write reviews(my reviews are fairly basic and boring in style) and partly because I don't know how to make gifs and I don't know the rules for using someone else I know if you borrow one for a tumblr post you're suppose to mention the source but I don't if you have to source for your blog or just mention it isn't yours or if you don't have to say anything because lots of people use unsourced gifs they didn't make on blogs.
ReplyDeleteWhile I usually like looking at gifs when reading reviews I find that they can be distracting at times such as anytime I see this gif of Alison from Teen Wolf breaking down after she finds out her mom died which is a gif that is used a lot of times in book reviews when someone is overwhelmed with feelings mostly relating to a ship and I find that most people who used that gif have never seen the show so I feel extra weird when reading their review because I'm thinking all about that episode of Teen Wolf which was one my favorites of season 2 and they're talking about a book where they think that caused them feels I think isn't as emotional as that scene which just distracts me from the whole point of the review. So while I like seeing gifs they can be distracting if I'm more emotionally invested in a gif than I am in the book the person is reviewing.