GIFs

By Jamie Henthorn, Megan Mize, Matthew Beale

An illuminating deep dive into the GIF and its evolution from a technical workaround to a powerful digital communication tool.

Since its creation in 1987, the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) has transformed from a practical workaround for slow internet connections into a dynamic mode of digital expression. Once used primarily to display simple animations and low-resolution images, the GIF now occupies a central but often overlooked role in many online discourse communities. Yet despite their cultural ubiquity, GIFs remain neglected in academic research fields. In GIFs, Matthew Beale, Jamie Henthorn, and Megan Mize explore the small-but-mighty GIF, inviting readers to reconsider how everyday digital practices reflect and shape broader social and cultural dynamics.

From group chats to global newsfeeds, GIFs permeate our digital lives, serving as humorous, subversive, and artful forms of communication. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the GIF as a cultural artifact, tracing its technological origins, aesthetic development, and communicative power. Across chapters focused on education, marketing and meme culture, creativity, identity, and community-building, this investigation explores how GIFs shape contemporary meaning-making, emotional expression, and digital participation, positioning the GIF as an integral piece of internet culture and history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262054612
• ISBN13: 9780262054614
• Release Date: November 2026
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 256 Pages