i think that while it had it's own host of problems it was really the ideal social media.
multiple media formats were supported. it was easily searchable. the ui was perfect; minimalist, iconic, but also customizable. while there was some kind of recommendation algorithm it really was just largely user-sourced: you followed specific blogs, specific tags, and that ultimately led to a super rich online experience where for certain the stuff you wanted to see was on your timeline and if you saw something you didn't recognize but liked (or something you recognized but didn't like) you could actually change your feed to include (or exclude) that new content, which more often than not came from people / tags you were already following
subculture on tumblr flourished in a way that instagram and twitter have never replicated; the fact that you could follow a$ap yams, frank ocean, et al and be tapped into this new moment in art and media or be in the pits of fandom tumblr or just be somewhere in the middle and constantly see cool photos, essays, etc. (where again, all of this is indexed on specific tags so people can post common stuff on the same thread) is just so much what the ideal digital platform is (for me, at least) - and unlike ig and twitter, you could be multi-faceted on tumblr; the algorithm (or your followers) didn't punish you for liking and posting about multiple things
instagram has carved its niche out by asking users "how monetizable can you make yourself?" twitter has carved its niche out by asking users "how disaffected and aloof can you make yourself?" tumblr was the only place where you weren't actively punished just for being earnest. it's still around but it absolutely isn't the same and the second someone can make a website with the exact same feature set without getting sued i'm so fucking there. pi.fyi is the first site that feels "tumblr-esque" in a while (honorable mention to are.na which i just haven't had the patience to figure out yet)
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tumblr will ultimately be the best place on the internet. due to the nostalgia from being a long time user & seeing the effects that it’s had on the internet & on a whole generation of people, till this day it remains my favorite. i’m glad it’s something that folks still actively use & that i find joy in reblogging the awesome things that i like such as archive fashion, stills from film, poetry & more. (a favorite post of mine as shown in the image attached. david lynch forever.)
Jan 17, 2025
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I’ve been on Tumblr since 2008. I had a blogspot for a while, which stills exists except none of the images were properly embedded so it’s just like, a bunch of text saying things like “i love this picture! i want to kiss somebody! I love music!” Tumblr is, in my opinion, the best social media site out there. It feels like the only place where images and information are passed around, saved and shared in a really earnest and personal way lol. I know twitter sort of works this way, too but I’m just not a twitter person, as much as I’d love to be. It’s also just a really lovely way of saving reference media, and it’s as anonymous as you want it to be. I love to use my tumblr as a mood board for my life. People are also soooo funny on tumblr, and I love the dashboard layout, it’s so soothing to me lol..but maybe it’s soothing because i’ve been using it as a comfort since I was, like, 12. I am rooting for tumblr to survive for as long as possible. Follow me @grossives it’s not that interesting but I give you full permission to scroll back to 2012 when I was reblogging cobra snake pictures of models, and flash photos of crystal blue pool water lol.
Dec 20, 2022
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i’ve tentatively dipped my toes into the tumblr pond a few times over the years but i have decided to actually commit to curating a blog… tumblr actually has quite a fantastic format, comparable to facebook but less evil. idk i think it works rlly well and i’m kind of keen for it to become more widely used and popular
Feb 18, 2025
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Mar 23, 2024
a treatise on the attention economy - checked it out on libby and got through it over the course of a work day, a lot of really interesting social and cultural explorations about how time itself is the final frontier of hypercapitalism and what decommodification of our attention and time should look like
the book starts with a story about the oldest redwood tree in oakland and how the only reason it’s still standing is bc it’s unmillable, and how being uncommercializable is essential to our survival. it ends with an exploration of alt social media platforms (mostly p2p ones) and what keeping the good parts of the social internet and rejecting the bad ones should look like
all in all a super valuable read; my only nitpick with the book is that odell isn’t just charting the attention economy but also attempting to “solve” it and relate it back to broader concepts about labor and social organizing, but her background is in the arts which leads to some really wonderful references to drive the points home while also missing some critical racial + socioeconomic analyses that one would expect (or at least really appreciate) from the book she promises to deliver in the introduction. but this does also make the book easier to read which is good because everyone should definitely engage with what she has to say
will definitely be revisiting
Mar 25, 2024