Generational divide threatens future of tech firm as it seeks approval for $400m takeover by Facebook owner Meta
It is rare for a multimillion-dollar company to explicitly state that its business is dying because it is simply too uncool to live.
I have always wanted to be cool.
...
Its valuation is down by $200m from its peak in 2016 and, more importantly, its core offering shows signs of going out of fashion.
I have always wanted to be fashionable.
“There are indications of an overall decline in gif use,” the company said in its filing, “due to a general waning of user and content partner interest in gifs.
“They have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with younger users in particular describing gifs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe’.”
I have always been a boomer.
...
The generational divide is real, says the internet culture writer Ryan Broderick. “Gifs feel extremely dated. They were never easy to make and didn’t work particularly well on mobile.
I have always been dated.
“So now they are basically the cringe reaction image your millennial boss uses in Slack. ...
What's Slack?
I just learned how to use reaction gifs and the teenagers are now informing me that gifs are "cringe"— Dan Robinson (@danrobinson) June 30, 2022
Note to self: stop using gifs, also blogger.
