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[luckytacobird-blog]

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TUMBLR: A SOCIAL MEDIA BLOG

DISCLAIMER: sappy, non-academic, personal, left leaning opinions, experiences and ideas to follow that might be hard to swallow

So I’ve returned to the Tumblr…Tumblr?

Whatever you call it these days, I FEEL OUTDATED AND OLD. No longer a child stumbling through social media platforms like these. Does anyone still use this platform? I haven’t since I graduated from high school. Although I feel like I’m in the toddler stages of my social networked life.

I disconnected during my early stages of academic study to focus on my G.P.A. To succeed in current educational networks and advance into employment or businesses you need social media skills. Those take participation and dedication to gain which meant at the time Tumblr became another distraction for me. Instead Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are now more of a priority. Yet to increase interactions and publicity there is a reliance on socialisation and relationships formed from those combined in order to navigate new networks.

Turns out that their development also needs a platform to allow participation. To find graduate employment you also need to be available often given little to no notice at all. Meaning graduates must manage their media usage well in most modern industries. 

Digitisation, diversification and direct changes to policy affecting Australian students in the future don't meet the claims made Innovation coincides with the technological movement.  Combining the diversity and digital applications of innovations to media for example. News is now sought out on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. While former print productions are now available places like Instagram or here. This digitisation collides with multiple student struggles. Raising issues about if someone can afford to be a prosumer who must be switched on and academically advanced for career success. Particularly for creatives you can ask the next photographer you meet about it.

Are we living the Always-on lifestyle? Unlike Danah Boyd’s claims about balancing the “Always-on lifestyle,” I don’t feel disconnected but I probably have been.  I have deleted several social media accounts on separate occasions. It all comes down to privacy and potential. Sometimes there is a demand to be social through media in modern metro but it can be resisted. I am an example of that so diving in the deep end of social media savvy here. After reviewing, I still don’t know how to view another Tumblrs followers, but I assume it’s possible and thus TUMBLR IS A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE.

After a bad relationship with this platform in my earlier years I thought we needed break and retracted whatever following I had gained at that time. The affordance of self indulgence seemed to complicate everything else for me when I found new focus. Other than myself, for the first time, I had someone else.

University came along and now here we are. Basically the origins of my current relationship can be traced back on Tumblr asks, reblogs and such. Now it’s been almost half a decade since then and what have I learned? We’ll see.

There are so many references I could make about new media technologies, platforms and the cultures of their use after years of studying those. I don’t think that’s necessary but the most relevant is the shift for me in sociality  is described by Eugenia Siapera and Manuel Castells predictions about the costs associated with those changes. The networked individualism they refer to is ever present in new media.

I remember a time on Tumblr where there were no suggestions, followers followed whatever tickled their fancy, and reblogging was the standard before everyone was sharing.

That was pre-Reddit being in the news, when Instagram still forced users to add a border, and YouTube wouldn’t let users pay to remove advertising. We aren’t any better off.

Divisions will always be drawn and it seems like Tumblr has carved out its own niche while being flexible enough to innovate itself to remain competitive. Certain Tumblr posts go beyond informing the audience and extend as a P.S a.k.a post script to entertain the relevant demographic. They’re basically an inside joke that can only be enjoyed properly on this platform. The affordance of being able differentiate between individuals who view the content separately to the platform and users who use the platform frequently is unique to Tumblr. Tumblr posts that are shared across other platforms often show these hashtags incompletely.

Leaving the content unfinished when shared across other social media encouraging users to access the content primarily through Tumblr itself. Here’s the limitation of the platform: the medium has decided what we can do with it. Nobody seems to have a problem with that on Tumblr. The ‘Others’ or outsiders are consistently attacking the platform for many reasons.

This quantifiable aspect of Tumblr is not mandated by the platform however cultures of use have shifted to include those details regardless. We can hashtag anytime, anyway we like, almost anywhere but this is Australia for context. Despite offering quite a unique platform pliable to individualisation, there are still aspects of Tumblr that are lacking, specifically their transparency when it comes to segregating market competition. Facebook probably won’t lose any sleep over it.

The cultures of use have shifted similarly with contemporary trends like digitisation and individualisation on other platforms. For instance, hash tagging in terms of technological change or the social shift of the ‘FOMO”. Yet to capitalise on this aspect of social media Tumblr has found its own niche way of segmenting itself off. The shift leaning towards elitism against other social media platforms.

Perhaps this was the intention of the developers to form a loyal consumer base. Whether by cultivating a change or an organic response from users, Tumblr is here. It’s queer. Get used to it.

Regardless the platform is infamous for the format and friendliness that has formed. My first experience with Tumblr came about from wanting to escape the monotony of social media platforms like Facebook while personalising my media.

Instead what happened was a specialisation of the interests I had in social networks, an expansion of my own, and creating a unique blog that ended up networking me into the relationship I’m still in now. Still kicking around just like my old tumblr blog. So here we are and we’ve come so far.

[agreatnose]

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