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When scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr in 2017, we are likely to find various iterations of “it me.” Sometimes the self-identification is in response to a GIF (e.g., “literally me rn”) or sometimes the GIF is the punchline (e.g., the caption “me when my food is ready” followed by reaction GIF of someone crying tears of joy). On Tumblr, the “me”-ing often takes the form of a tag, as in #me. Instagram has even added an “it me” sticker for your stories.
The issue of digital blackface outlined by Lauren Michele Jackson becomes even more problematic in this culture saturated with self-identification. Nonblack internet users are not just circulating images of black people. The act of saying “it me” clarifies that using a reaction GIF is an act of identification with the image, not merely an act of appreciation or propagation.
This difference may be subtle, but it matters. When you use a black reaction GIF, you situate the desirable elements of the GIF (its humor, its sassiness, whatever) as an extension of yourself. As Jackson puts it: “We are your sass, your nonchalance, your fury, your delight, your annoyance, your happy dance, your diva, your shade, your “yaas” moments.”
Because GIFs have developed into an authorless form, there is no way (or perhaps no motivation) to credit the original author or the people who appear in the GIF. Giving credit to the author or to the people who appear in a GIF may be one way of saying “it them”–of differentiating between your use of the GIF and your total self-identification with it.
Posted from Digital Studies by Hannah L.