Tumblr Uniting Marginalized Communities
Tumblr is one of the many social media that exist and is used by young people for entertainment. What makes Tumblr stand out among the rest is that it is viewed as a “wild” or free-spirited platform (Wood 2022). Okay, let me explain it in a way that is easy for you to understand. Let us think of social media platforms as regular people in our life.
Firstly, we have Twitter. It is known for its concise content, where people post or, as they call it, ‘tweet’, whatever topics within only 280 characters. Twitter users tend to tweet their personal thoughts on any interesting subject. I like to think of it as a younger sibling who is obsessed over trivial things and forcing you to listen to the nitty-gritty details of their day 😒.
Moving on, we have Instagram, where everyone can upload pictures or short videos. Typically, it ranges from their daily outfits, precious memories with friends and families, or a shoutout to various brand products. The culture of Instagram is aesthetically pleasing that it gives off the vibe of a person who takes hundreds of selfies per day, including everything and everyone around them.
Then, the star of the show, Tumblr, has everything from texts, pictures, videos, GIFs, music, and more. It is a crossover of blog sites and social media (Internet Matters Team 2022). Plus, people can even customize their own Tumblr accounts that represent their personalities. The media logic for this platform is not fixed like other platforms, and it provides its users with the freedom to express themselves (Wood 2022). There are no rules in whatever form of content you want to post! Personally, Tumblr really comes across as an introvert, maybe a weirdo, but definitely a cool creative person 😎.
The reason I said that is because of the nature of Tumblr. There is no profile or friends list on the user’s account. It is anonymously created and may be tricky to identify who the owner is (Keller 2019 p 7). One doesn’t need to use their own pictures or names. Hence, this anonymity delivers a safe space for people to express themselves without judgement. Plus, this allows them to bring people together, creating a community with similar interests (Internet Matters Team 2022), be it film series, books or funny memes.
What I want to bring up here, the anonymity culture really helps those marginalized communities, such as women and LGBTQ+ people, to bond and share experiences. I believe every woman has experienced some form of harassment, such as catcalling. Some even have gone through worse, and it can take years to get over such trauma. On the other hand, LGBTQ+ people have experienced harassment or isolation for so long because society still considers them abnormal. This makes them feel alienated from themselves and question their own worth.
Not to worry, Tumblr is here to save the day! 🥳 As mentioned, the anonymity culture allows people to interact with their respective communities safely because each can connect to one other. A survey among LGBTQ+ respondents on their usage of Tumblr, and one of them said that Tumblr is a space to relate to each other through their experiences. It is a platform where they don’t necessarily ask for advice but more on gaining attention and support from other users (Byron et al 2019 p 2247).
It goes the same for the feminists who use Tumblr to talk about feminism. A controversial topic can lead to debates, and sometimes it just goes south. But Tumblr provides a space where it is converse among those within the community only, which they can control and expect a better interaction result. They can control the flow of information and the people that can access it, which is called social privacy (Keller 2019 p 8). Due to this, Keller (2019 p 8) said that a lot of girls feel safer sharing their thoughts on this matter without worrying about the hate comments.
Tumblr's ‘No Rules Allowed’ culture undoubtedly pushes the boundary of conversation topics we rarely hear daily. To some extent, the exposure of these taboo topics really helps, especially young individuals to learn about themselves and gain clarity of their identity. It tremendously helps in showing that there are many people out there who are like us and let us know that we are not alone.
Byron, P, Robards, B, Hanckel, B, Vivienne, S & Churchill, B 2019, ‘“Hey, I’m Having These Experiences”: Tumblr Use and Young People’s Queer connections’, International journal of communication (Online), University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, Annenberg Press, p. 2239–.
Internet Matters Team 2022, What is Tumblr? What parents need to know, Internet Matters, viewed 13 April 2023, <https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is tumblr/#:~:text=It%20is%20host%20to%20more,people%20of%20similar%20interests%20together.>.
Keller, J 2019, ‘“Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms’, Social media + society, vol. 5, no. 3, SAGE Publications, London, England, p. 205630511986744–.
Woods, K 2022, Tumblr is back. What does that mean for marketers?, Sprout Social, viewed 13 April 2023, <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/tumblr-marketing/>.
