This is Jess’ personality - check out her Twitter account. I don’t mind it, but I’ve followed her for a while so I’m used to it. Honestly I find it to be a refreshing break from typical the typically stiff writing I see. She’s smart and doesn’t need to hide behind stodgy writing in order to make herself seem smarter.
I don't really mind it on twitter, as twitter is anything but serious, and you can't really have any coherent text there.
But such elements in a regular article simply harm its coherence and readability for anyone that does not spend much of their time in (rather noisy and immature, IMHO) communities which feature "meme image macros" heavily.
(Bonus negative points if some of the images are animated. That makes me think that the author actively hates the readers.)
