During the Coronavirus lockdown, Americans turned to social media out of necessity to stay in touch with the outside world. Now, GIPHY (the online animated GIF database and library) released a study on how users are employing GIFs to send messages to friends and loved ones while expressing how they’re feeling during quarantine.
The report, How the Nation is Social Distancing — As Told by GIFs, looks at how people used the brief, animated captured moments over the past month as they turn to social media to stay connected. GIPHY’s numbers offers some hints at how distancing and stay at home orders are changing people’s lives and emotions.
GIPHY usage is booming during the Coronavirus lockdown as users turn to more GIFs to express … [+]
According to the GIPHY data, social media users are increasingly turning to GIFs to express themselves with the library’s usage up 33% from the previous 30 days. Of course, searches for “Coronavirus” increased significantly as the international news story consumed headlines. Rather than just reflect the doom of an illness, stats show an uptick in affection and encouragement-related searches. Terms such as “I Love You,” “I Miss You” and “You Got This” bumped up 30% during the past month.
Service spokeswoman Chelsea Martineau says the minds behind GIPHY are pleased to see the spike in positivity, but insists there was no effort to shape or pitch its library for any sort COVID-19 response.
“This was meant as an analysis of the month’s search terms and top GIFs,” Martineau says. “While GIPHY naturally saw coronavirus-specific searches trend, it did not specifically analyze COVID-19 vs non-COVID-19 GIFs.”
With many businesses shut and millions more Americans working from home, searches related to that nontraditional lifestyle rose 35-times more than the previous 30 days. Before and after bankers hours, searches for GIFs on “party,” “Netflix” and “drinks” evenly distribute throughout the day.
Many Americans in quarantine during the Coronavirus crises express themselves via GIFs on social … [+]
Some of the biggest statistical jumps emerged around the themes of entertainment. GIPHY searches for “Movies” and “TV” shot up 643% and 999% respectively — with the Netflix hit Tiger King the most searched show. The term “Gaming” climbed 928%, with “Animal Crossing” increasing 20%. Any guess is valid to explain the latter.
Finally, to fend off accusations of wasting their furlongs and lockups, social media users evidently looked to pick up new or long-lost hobbies with search terms like “drawing,” “design” and “painting” up 225%.