Is Tumblr a blog or a social networking site?
Tumblr: blog or social networking site? Well, that’s a tough question. Is it one, the other, or both? Before we define it as either of those, let’s look at them individually. So, what’s a blog?
Some say it’s a commentary, others say it’s an extension of ourselves, a “personalised self-expression”. Yet all agree that blogs are more than just words and images, and that it’s become a major phenomenon of digital culture (Cross 2011, p. 37). Blogs are user-generated content, promoting the exchange of amateur or professional content (Dijck 2013, p. 8).
A social networking site on the other hand, is a site that primarily promotes interpersonal contact. The word ‘social’ itself means communal, suggesting that social sites encourage communal activity (Dijck 2013, p. 11).
Despite some clear distinctions between the two, there are many blurred lines between a blog and a social networking site, especially when it comes to a platform like Tumblr.
When Tumblr began in early 2007, many would have argued that it came out as a social networking site (Tumblr 2018). It’s users would like each others posts, share them, or “reblog” them, much like how other sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow their users to interact. Originally, people shared photos, memes, quotes etc; only small posts that allowed users to continuously scroll.
Although this is still the case for many Tumblr users, the site’s purpose has made a shift in recent years. The “reblog” button has taken a literal meaning, with bloggers around the globe turning to Tumblr for their blogging purposes. Therefore, it can be argued that although Tumblr may have started out as a social networking site, it has now transformed into a blogging platform.
This doesn’t mean it isn’t still a social networking site though…
In a social network, people form ties, ‘ties’ meaning the type of connection that users have between one another. This theory of networked individualism and social ties was formed by Mark Granovetter, whom believed that in a social networking site, we are constantly making and actively maintaining these connections (Dowding 2011). Tumblr definitely allows it’s users to form and maintain these ties through the act of following one another, sharing each others posts and interacting with one another, even if these ties are considered “weak”.
Siapera 2012 p. 194 looks at this same idea of ties, arguing that users on social networking sites base their connections on shared interest rather than their psychical location, as she suggests people would in real life. In this way, Tumblr, like any social networking site, eliminates these geographical limitations, allowing anyone from anywhere to form these ties, and for individuals to meet “like-minded” people.
Yet all of these connections are forming in a very public manner. One of the key fundamentals of blogging is the idea of publicness; the idea that a blog is a ‘public diary’. Connections can still occur when blogging, as people follow blogs that they are interested in or find similar to their own. Blogs, like they are an extension of their blogger, can be seen as a form of social self-presentation as Cunningham & Turnbull 2014 p. 292 describes. Yet self-presentation is dependant on the publicness of the user’s profile, and publicness is key to blogging.
In summary, Tumblr falls in both categories of a social networking site and a blog. It honestly depends on how it’s users like to use it. Whether for blogging or forming “friendships”, the site allows for both.
Also, Before I forget...
Welcome to my blog!
And just because I’m using tumblr to blog doesn’t mean that it’s not also a social networking site, by the way...
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References:
Cross, M 2011, Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter are Transforming Popular Culture, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara.
Cunningham, S & Turnbull, T 2014, The media & communications in Australia, 4th Edition, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Dijck, J. V 2013, The Culture of Connectivity: a Critical History of Social Media, Oxford University Press.
Dowding, K. M 2011, Encyclopedia of Power, Sage Publications, California. Siapera, E 2012, Understanding New Media, Sage, Los Angeles.
Tumblr, 2018, About, Tumblr, viewed 31 March 2018, <https://www.tumblr.com/about>.
