-Essay-
PARIS — Hmph, I let out, raising a skeptical left eyebrow.
It’s Wednesday, 10 A.M. and someone at Worldcrunch’s daily editorial meeting has just suggested we do a story on “being happy.” Urgh.
The starting off point for the eyeroll-inducing conversation is an article in Paris-based economic daily Les Echos, which unpacked a recent Harvard University happiness study that had tracked data from more than 2,000 people over the course of several decades about the sources of what we French call: le bonheur.
The conclusion was that happiness doesn’t lie in material possessions or career success, but in the quality of our social relationships. Gee, science, thanks for the tip.
More interestingly perhaps, the article also focused on another recent study suggesting that our happiness, or lack thereof, may be rooted in our DNA. Not a product of circumstances, not a merry cocktail of culture, personal choices and our social circles — No: happiness is quite literally in your genes. The study, conducted by an international team of researchers, points to certain sequences that may indeed play a role in shaping our emotional experiences, with some variations decidedly linked to a predisposition for lower levels of happiness.
Could it be, we asked ourselves in the editorial meeting, that we French, with our history of philosophical musings (Rousseau!), our existential questioning (Sartre!) and downcast grumbling (Napoleon!) — could it be that we possess those genetic markers more than others?
This was the more interesting question, and who better to write it than the newsroom’s resident grumpy Frenchman …
Stopped in my tracks
I’ll say from the start that, yes, I have often played into the stereotype of the perpetually grouchy Français. Here in la République, we are taught at a young age that bored and blasé is always a better look than eager and enthusiastic.
Of course, given my managerial position at Worldcrunch, I have to factor in troop morale, and aim for something of a frowning authority — with a weekly smile. Writing this piece would be a way to clarify for my colleagues what’s really going on in my head. Not really.
But the aforementioned editorial meeting took place on October 4. Just three days later, we all know what happened, and for obvious reasons my pontificating about grumpiness v. happiness got postponed.
The gift of GIFing
Fast forward to today. From one of my browser’s 3,193 open tabs, the Les Echos piece on happiness winks at me, asking again: In these dark days, amid so-called “news fatigue,” to what indeed is my current happiness linked, at least professionally?
It lies, of course, in the value of the work itself, in the quality of my relationships with my colleagues, in the lively and pun-riddled editorial meetings. But it also has to do, I realize, with something much more unlikely and seemingly superficial: GIFs.
You may sneer. You may scoff — heck, you may even raise a skeptical left eyebrow at what The Guardian has just kindly confirmed, “isn’t cool any more.”
But in my day-to-day online interactions with my fellow millennials, younger Gen Z and the occasional senior Gen X, the animated format has brought me nothing but joy for the past 10 years. More varied than emojis (now those are really uncool ?), GIFs hit the sweet spot of either on-point cultural reference or complete randomness. Selecting the perfect one, keeping it HR-friendly, timing it wisely, checking the recipient chuckle out of the corner of my eye … Happiness, to paraphrase the Beatles, is a warm GIF.
And in a year where the tech world was dominated by the vertiginous rise of ChatGPT and other dizzying generative AI tools, I found GIFs to be just the right level of retro. With the added benefit of not potentially causing our collective demise.
GIF, not DNA, then: Those were the three letters (and by the way, I’m going for the soft djeef pronunciation, sorry Mr. Obama) that bridged my curmudgeonly nature with the need to spread glee among Worldcrunch staff members.
A very GIFy 2023, and 2024
GIPHY (i.e. the world’s biggest GIF database) recently confirmed this profoundly two-sided dimension in its 2023 Year in Review: The five most popular GIFs of 2023, shared hundreds of millions of times, translate perfectly our conflicted world’s yearning for unadulterated joy and need to grumble and moan! Proof:
#1. Do I know why this GIF from Mo Willems children’s book series The Pigeon and Elephant & Piggie was the most used GIF this past year? Nay. Does it almost make me smile? Yay!
When did I use it this year?
To celebrate well-performing articles. Also, Fridays.
#2. It’s there in the GIF: “HAPPY” birthday. Thank you, U.S. rapper Saweetie.
When did I use it this year?
Trollingly, any day that it was, indeed, not a colleague’s birthday.
#3. How apt. The first grumpy GIF in this merry batch is from France: What’s the matter, Olympique de Marseille soccer coach Igor Tudor?
When did I use it this year?
Explaining how I got trapped in the office’s tiny elevator for an hour.
#4. When Ultimate Fighter Brad Katona stares into the distance to bemoan the state of his existence, you just use that GIF.
When did I use it this year?
Every time I got stuck with a bug on the Worldcrunch website.
#5. What’s that you say, Ryan Gosling’s Ken for Greta Gerwig’s ubiquitous movie Barbie, raising your left eyebrow? GIFs are so cool? Yes. Yes, they are.
When did I use it this year?
When we tallied the 1,900+ articles we managed to publish this past year. And hoping to deploy it throughout 2024.
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