Let’s Talk About … GIF’s in Reviews

~ Kelly | Another Book in the Wall

Header - Fiona

Happy Friday everyone! I finally started scheduling posts this week, and it has opened up so much more time for me to read! It’s been positively lovely! If you don’t schedule posts, I highly recommend that you consider it. I’ve been writing a few reviews lately, and have noticed that I’ve gravitated further away from incorporating GIF’s in these posts. This led me to start thinking about how people may perceive these in reviews. Do they make the review appear less professional? Or, perhaps they make the review more enjoyable? Without further ado, let’s talk about GIF’s in reviews!

Have The Popularity of GIF’s Been Declining?

When I first began blogging several years back, GIF’s in reviews were as common as white girls at Starbucks – mainstream, popular, and rather inseparable. As I’ve rejoined the reading community this year, I’ve noticed that GIF’s scarcely make an appearance in reviews, and when they do, it’s often in a review that is considerably short. Is this perhaps, because GIF’s merely aren’t as popular any more, or are there other factors that have been affecting this declining trend?

Are GIF’s Regarded As Unprofessional?

A persistent fear I have, is that my reviews will appear less professional or maybe even childish if I choose to include a few GIF‘s. Although I don’t appraise the quality of a review by the writer’s use of GIF‘s, I can’t help but wonder if there are readers who do. While it remains true that younger audiences might prefer the use of these over older audiences, I believe everyone’s perceptions of GIF’s varies, and age isn’t a dominant factor. If one was writing a review directly to the publisher, I can see how it wouldn’t be necessary to include GIF’s; but on blogs and websites such as Goodreads, I don’t see what harm a few short clips could cause. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comment section!

The Appeal Of GIF’s

The Perfect Icebreaker. If you’re like me, you might find GIF’s to be perfect for breaking up paragraphs. I occasionally write reviews that are quite wordy, and love how GIF’s help divide the paragraphs. I would imagine readers appreciate me not drowning them in a sea of words. Haha.

They’re engaging. As much as I hate to admit it, if a review is long, and without anything in bold, I’ll probably skim read it. I would love to thoroughly read every review in my feed, but I often don’t have the time to! GIF’s capture my interest, and help progress the review.

GIF’S help display our feelings in ways that words can’t.

Related image

The Verdict

I personally enjoy GIF’s, but don’t typically incorporate them in my reviews. Of course, there are times when I can’t help myself; however, for the most part I reserve them for my other types of posts. I love seeing GIF’s in reviews and blog posts, but do believe in quality over quantity. If the GIF is added with its only intention being to fill up space and make the review appear longer, I’m not a huge fan. But, if it’s a funny GIF that connects what is written, I love it!

What are your thoughts on GIF’s in reviews and blog posts? Do you agree/disagree with any of my points? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading! ❤

Kelly (2).png

Instagram | Twitter | Email | Goodreads | Bloglovin

 

67 thoughts on “Let’s Talk About … GIF’s in Reviews”

  1. I’m a BIIIIIG believer in quality over quantity with GIFs! A well-chosen, well-placed GIF can totally improve a review for me, but I absolutely hate reviews that use tons of GIFs. I always find myself frustrated when I see a blogger write a really well-thought-out review that took a lot of effort, and it gets way less attention than a review that’s just a handful of GIFs and like, “I AM DEAD RIP ME” and that’s… it. I dunno, I get a little salty about that LMAO, but thankfully I don’t see it on Goodreads nearly as much as I did when I started reviewing in fall ’16

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Pingback: April Wrap-Up | Not Many Books, But Plenty of Great Reads! | Another Book in the Wall

  4. I prefer pictures to break up text because my laptop display driver often crashes when I view GIF’s. (It’s an ancient laptop!) I love them, they really do get the point across well, but my laptop hates them!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Another fantastic post Kelly! I think is all in the eye of the beholder. Reading (even with reviews and discussion) is such an individualized experience. I tend to use gifs to lighten a discussion, but rarely in review. However, I see plenty of reviewers who use them very well! I think it is a matter of finding a level of appropriateness that works well but does not overshadow the content?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I don’t typically use gifs in reviews. I tend to use them in discussion posts more than anything. I don’t have any issue with gifs and I agree that it has to be quality over quantity. I love it when a gif corresponds to the point being made in the review. I find that it adds that hint of character to a review.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Weekly Wrap-Up | Apr. 29 | Another Book in the Wall

  8. I don’t tend to use GIFs in my reviews but I sometimes use them in other types of posts. I agree that they can help to break up large chunks of writing and I definitely appreciate them when they help me to know how someone felt about a book 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. Pingback: My Bad Reading Habits Tag – the orang-utan librarian

  10. Such a great discussion! I personally feel the same way about this subject- I like gifs, but don’t use them as much in reviews- maybe because they come across as a bit childish, I don’t know though, I’ve never really thought about it, it could just be cos I prefer to use them for other sorts of post and don’t want to overload it- which definitely comes down to a quality over quantity kind of thing. Anyway, this really got me thinking!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. I agree that if you are going to send it to a publisher or the author then GIF’s are not necessary and it can make you look unprofessional! But on your blog I feel like it’s okay and it can express what you can’t really say with words! (I guess you have probably noticed how much I love them by now😂).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. What an interesting discussion. I haven’t been blogging for a huge amount of time so I don’t know if they’ve been declining, but I completely understand your thoughts about professionalism. I worry that people won’t take my reviews seriously, too. I don’t tend to use GIFs in my reviews as I don’t feel like they belong there often but I love using them in any other post! I think they’re fun and can express your opinions, or are just there to make others laugh. Great post!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. I love GIFs! They’re really fun and expressive. I don’t like it when they’re overused but as long as they’re balanced nicely! (although I’ve only used them once and I think I went overboard but oops haha)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. Great discussion! I personally enjoy GIFs in reviews because hey, a picture’s worth a thousand words. Of course, there are those reviews I don’t take as seriously if it’s someone ONLY expressing their emotions via GIFs and not attempting to seriously say anything beyond that, but if the balance is there, I love GIFs. (Never use them in my reviews though because I’m lazy to search for them, and I’m not as funny as I’d like to be haha)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. I know how you feel! In my earlier reviews, I used to constantly use GIFS especially because I found them so fun and hilarious! As I started to get more familiar with blogging and reviewing, I couldn’t help but feel that others may think an excess use of it was unprofessional. It’s still something I try to incorporate every once in awhile, but I’ve been trying to get the message across without using GIFS. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not one of those bloggers who hates them, they still hold a special place in my heart & I love seeing others use them! I guess I just personally grew out of using them!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. I tend to use gifs in other posts as well 🙂 I do like them in reviews though. I love it when they perfectly sum up opinions.

    Like

    Reply

  22. I don’t usually use them in my reviews, but I do enjoy them in other blogger’s reviews. I think they are a good way of getting the emotion that the book gave you across to your readers quickly. I also find them very entertaining, and a well used gif can make me laugh for ever.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  23. I’m a grumpy person who hates gifs in reviews, but I see that as a personal preference more than anything else and don’t consider it “wrong” or “unprofessesional” to use them. I follow very few blogs that use gifs, mainly because I think too many is overwhelming, and also some people use them as a replacement for actually writing content. If someone uses a couple well-chosen gifs to ADD to their content, I can kind of get behind that.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  24. I don’t mind using gifs in reviews as long as the gifs intended to represent the feeling that sometimes indescribable, gifs are the best way to show it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. i had the same feelings about “not being professional”…
    So haven’t used them a lot in reviews. But i think they do work. I mean, i do find it distracting if there are a lot of them, but one or two does wonders. I should do it more often 😂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  29. I’ve wondered the same thing myself! I’ve used gifs in a couple of my reviews over the years, but not very many. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t use a lot of them because then I’d take even longer to write a review since I’d be spending so long looking for the perfect one!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  30. I think it’s an entirely personal choice. I don’t mind gifs in reviews and don’t see them as unprofessional. I think there can add humour or help reiterating frustration, boredom or any other emotions we may have experienced whilst reading a book that we want highlight even more.
    I personally don’t use them but that’s purely because I haven’t figured out how to do it yet.. 🙈😂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  31. I can take them or leave them. Honestly half the time I don’t notice them or skim over them but sometimes they’ll be some where it’s like oh, that ones new or huh, they went really far back with that one 🙂 I suppose I’m divided opinion on it myself! I do enjoy your blogging discussion posts!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  32. A very timely post… I think I’ve thought about this a lot, because I’ve never used a gif in my blog till now… I just started using them in texting and I still can’t figure out the correct ones yet… I do enjoy seeing them on a lot of reviews in GR, they are so funny.. but I don’t think I’ll ever start using them soon… !!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to Kelly | Another Book in the Wall Cancel reply