I have never considered myself a high tech nerd – or even close to it. However, I did know about twitter, Facebook, texting etc. etc. I can even add little smiley faces to my e-mails – assuming I am working from my iPad. Then, I find out to my chagrin that I have not been adding “gifs” to anything. Not only that, but I did not even know what a “gif” was – or is. I assume that I may not be completely alone in this as The Blonde in the house did not know either.
Since most people who take the time to read my weekly musing undoubtedly know and use a gif every now and then, an explanation may not be necessary. Just in the off chance that there are some out there who are like me and may want to start adding a gif here or there to their communications, I will discourse a little bit on the subject. It will have to be a little bit as I am in over my head even with that understanding.
Probably not everyone will agree with my explanation, but it seems to me that a gif is used by fundamentally lazy people. Essentially a gif is a seconds-long video clip that people use when it is too much trouble to explain something in words. For example, if you were in Minnesota last week you would not explain in perfect English how darn cold it was up there. You would just bring in a gif that shows Leonardo DiCaprio shivering in the movie The Revenant. That is a simple example, but you can bring up a gif for just about anything.
Heck, a guy would not even have to propose anymore. He could just text his girlfriend a gif showing a guy on a bended knee. Of course, she might send back a gif showing an insensitive slob. There are dangers in gifs as with anything new. Apparently you can get a gif at Giphy.com or Riffsy.com, should you wish to join the “in” crowd. There may be other locations as well as labor saving sources are much in demand. I mean why waste typing a few good natured words when a click of the mouse will bring in a hopefully appropriate video?
Now gifs are one thing, but do you know who the latest “Teddy” is. Well, believe it or not Teddy is a 9-month-old professional hamster model and actor who works 25 hours a week. I was aware that the politicians who run things have been bragging about their job creation efforts, but I do believe that this has gone a little far. He is a cute little guy, and my guess is that he will become part of a gif video. He sits behind a little desk and will show up in one of those New York state ads that gives a sweeping panorama of people working. The little snippet of Teddy will undoubtedly be a gif that people send out to show how hard they are working.
What this means is that the appellation “wordsmith” will shortly have no meaning. People will quickly have no idea what the term means – especially those people who show up in news programs as the “man or woman” on the street. I do wonder where they find some of them.
I guess that life will go on, but it will be different from what we experienced. I saw the other day that one of the world’s great philosophers predicts that in a hundred years the world will be composed of lazy people with big thumbs! The only problem was that he explained it by using a large number of gifs!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com