I logged onto Tumblr for the first time in years. How strange, it felt like an empty and vast space, familiar yet faded. I can still vividly remember the excitement coming from 2011, the multitudes of creative people forging their own identities through the use of the platform. Connection felt real, heck, it was real. It was authentic and an online phenomenon. It sounds like a sentimental memory now, but if you were there, in the beginning of your artistic journey, fresh out of school, it was special. Those of us who had grown up with the internet were finally seeing it reach a peak of utilization and still capturing creative freedom. I would spend many late nights writing or recording music or thinking, then sharing these with the world. I befriended people from Oslo and Maine and South Dakota and Tokyo and Berlin and it was amazing. We all felt part of something amazing. By 2014 Tumblr failed to move forward and began its slow decay. Youtube, Instagram, Facebook all became monetized, social influencers started to fill the waves with unsatisfying noise, and the landscape changed once more. I am not sure if Tumblr of its peak was ever replaced in another form. I am yet to find an online space that had its level of connection and creative standard than 2011 Tumblr had.
What am I trying to get at here? I don't know. Maybe the slow end of this platform is just a reflection of life. Maybe being able to make peace with change is important. But if you were there on those late nights at the turn of the decade, you will know how magic it was. It was beautiful.
(Myself staring out into the night somewhere in the Alps).