
GIFs, emoji, stickersā¦ theyāre taking over the internet. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that itās okay if we use fewer words, but now Iām a flag-flying enthusiast.
When they first started to become a mainstream part of internet communication, I really didnāt like GIFs, emoji and stickers. They felt cheesy, they were childish memes and unnecessary images being inserted into news to āappeal to millennials,ā as if millennials canāt read words. People sent me animated stickers in IM conversations and I cringed ā ājust send me words, weāre not babies,ā I thought. And then something changedā¦
The main thing was that TNW started using Slack for whole company communication, and with Slack comes the Giphy integration that someone inevitably switches on. Learning that thereās a relevant GIF for any situation was a revelation.

Suddenly, it was fun to respond to the sales team saying āwe just signed a big dealā by writing ā/giphy woohooā and seeing what animation Giphy would come back to illustrate the word āwoohoo.ā Whatever GIF came back, it conveyed a celebratory spirit far better than typing out ācongratulations.ā
Meanwhile, more apps and keyboards started supporting emoji natively, and it almost seemed rude not to use them. When is the perfect time to use a joker emoji? Iām not sure, but Iāll work it out one day. ?
Incidentally, when I searched Giphy for an emoji to illustrate āwoohooā for this article, almost all the results were based on copyrighted material.
That said, is a looped image of Roger the alien from American Dad really going to hurt anyone? If anything, itās viral promotion for the show. The only credit or attribution given to many GIFs based on copyrighted material is to the creator of the GIF, not the creator of the source material. For VC-backed Giphy, and for others like brands considering the use of GIFs in their social marketing, lack of consent from rightsholders is an interesting question, even though āfair useā should cover many uses in the USA, and Giphy complies with DMCA takedown requests.

Look at Instagram and Snapchat ā image-based communication is on the rise and todayās children may opt to use more pictures than words in many situations as they grow older.
As those children enter the workforce, why should they adapt to āthe adult worldā? When emoji is just an expected part of everyday conversation ā and business ā itās the fuddy-duddies limiting themselves to words who will be excluded from the most exciting opportunities.
GIFs and emoji can be overused, but theyāre not going anywhere, so you might as well get used to them. If you havenāt embraced them, nowās the time, before itās too late. ?
A version of this article first appeared in the TNW Weekly newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Friday.
Image credits: Cindy Suen/Giphy, Fox Broadcasting Company/Giphy
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