So, I just took this survey on Tumblr and Language Conventions, and I really liked my answers for some of the questions:
Here's the link to the survey, btw.
(Warning, I wrote, like, an ESSAY on gifs)
In your view, what is the difference between the following: omg, OMG, oh my god, OH MY GOD, and oh my gOD.
omg: used as an introductory phrase to an average post
OMG: used as either the initiator of a section of all capital letters (capslock), or to break up the monotony of a completely lower case paragraph.
oh my god: used in slightly more serious cases than both omg and OMG.
OH MY GOD: used in the same cases as the previous phrase, except when particular attention must be paid to the phrase (as a standalone capslock phrase) or in a section of capslock.
oh my gOD: this is difficult to explain. the meaning of spelling the latter half of words is very dependent on who is typing, but personally this is the most important way to say something. When I only spell the latter half of words, I need those words, and the event they are describing, to be paid special attention. So when I write 'oh my gOD' not only do I mentally stress the end of the sentence more in my head, but I want the reader to be more impacted by the statement.
Explain the situations in which you would personally use keysmashing.
I used keysmashing in several different ways. The most common way is when I am far too lazy to think up an intelligent comment. But I also use it to:
accentuate my frustration with a person, subject, or event
express my anger with a person, subject, or event
highlight my joy about a person, subject or event
used as a third item in an oxford-comma list e.g. "omg, Colin Morgan has a beautiful face, and smile, and asjkfhgksafassahjkfgaj."
What reasons would you have for using an image (either .gif or .jpg) in a post?
Gifs and jpgs are pretty much one of the best things about tumblr.
So, when I'm writing a post that has a lot of text, I sometimes use gifs to break up the text, because tumblr people usually don't like long texts posts, and the moving gif can catch people's attention. The gif always corresponds to whatever emotion the PREVIOUS sentence was conveying, e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, confusion.
Now, outside of personal text posts, there are many other ways to use a gif or jpg. Say you want to agree with a post (quote, statement, argument, etc). You might select a gif that has a popular TV character (say, the Doctor, from Doctor Who) pointing up in the air, with the word "THIS" superimposed over the image. As you can imagine, this type of agreeing gif comes in many forms. Other times people use gifs when a previous commenter has said something either completely ridiculous, or incredibly funny. The current reblogger will add in a gif that reflects either frustration with a ridiculous comment, or laughter at a funny one.
Gifs are also used in their own photo posts, in sets of up to 9 individual gifs, know as gifsets. Reactionary gifs can be used to post reactions to gifsets.
The main rule with gifs on tumblr is that you can use any gif as a reaction gif, but if you repost it in it's own post, you either must have made it yourself, or you MUST credit the owner.
As well as those uses, there are special cases where Americans tend to respond to texts posts that highlight something bad or funny about America with a ludicrously "Pro-America" jpg in a self-deprecating comment. For example, if the original post says "American's don't have _______?", an American commenter will reblog and comment something like "We might not have ______, but we have FREEDOM!" and then post a jpg of a fighter jet with an eagle for a head. And then from there on more and more American's will reblog with their own ridiculous jpgs, often featuring bald eagles, fireworks, guns, and women in bikinis. All of these comments are not serious, and the people who do this often dislike America more than anyone else in the world. I, personally, do this all the time. It gets even better then a Canadian will break in and comment with something like "You may have bald eagles and guns, but we have HEALTHCARE" and then post a picture of a moose holding a jar of maple syrup. All of this is in jest and is actually one of my favorite things about jpg uses.
