A 'nation' of microbloggers:
Tumblr and transcending physical borders.
When it became widely distributed in the early 19th century, the electrical telegraph was considered a revolutionary form of communication. This technology’s mass dissemination of messages lead to what Standage called an elevation of “the conception of human brotherhood” (1998, p. 163). By establishing a platform which allowed people from a wider locality communicate, this allowed people to broaden their understanding of the world and people around them. From personal letters to public news announcements, information became much easier to be shared not only nationally, but also globally. This concept can be closely linked to the imagined communities (Anderson, 1991) created within Tumblr in the 21st Century, today. This is evident in that people could relate to others, and form relationships and converse through distributed messages without being physically situated close together. Similarly, Tumblr produces opportunities for residents of online participation to form bonds and relationships with people who have similar values and interests, despite the physical borders between them.
The following image (source) depicts a map of telegraph cable routes that enabled a global span of communication at the launch of the 20th Century.
Today, communication through the Internet is available to a much greater extent. Over the last month, Tumblr received a network traffic sum of 242,044,096 globally. Imagine the vast number of opportunities created on this platform for people to discuss and share common interests. Below is a map depicting the use of Tumblr across the globe (source).
It is vital to realise the implications of Tumblr, and its ability to transcend physical borders based on the formation of relationships. These bonds assist in the development of our perception of the world we participate in, or more specifically, the Tumblr community we interact with, as a global village.
“As far as perception goes, he understood this influence mainly in terms of the concept of extension: we extend our consciousness, we live in what he later called ‘a global village’.” – Coeckelbergh, 2011, shaped by the research of Marshall McLuhan in 1964 (see video).
