Is Tumblr a blogging platform or a social networking site?
At first glance, it is easy to assume that Tumblr might be defined and simply understood as a blogging platform. Admittedly, the foundations with which Tumblr is built upon, as well as it’s functionalities do strongly make that suggestion…
….Tumblr culture and user behaviour often reflects the qualities and features which characterises a blogging platform. The dashboard is an open space that allows the personalised expression of an individual to form connections with those of shared interest. Text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video posts are the modes of communication which enable interest-based communities to take form…
…However it is also important to note that the reblog function quite openly removes the intimacy and individuality of the traditional blogging experience to an extent and likens itself to social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter…
…Yet I think Tumblr holds a certain quality which social networking sites do not. The identity of Tumblr and the capabilities it provides its users, which distinguishes itself from other online resources, positions the platform in a space where it quite clearly appears to behave as a blog more so than a social networking service…
…Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and more all appear to connect individuals to both strangers and people they know, and also encapsulates information and content that caters to both personal and shared interests. Undeniably, Tumblr is used in the same manner by many via one-on-one chat and the follow action which is typical of a social networking service. This is why Tumblr is often interpreted as a social networking site….
…However Tumblr allows for portfolio building and focuses on the process of producing creative content. This is part of the reason why many Tumblr personalities and accounts attract attention by constructing a presence that resembles a digitalised diary, personal scrapbook, collection of thoughts or a registry for an individual’s art and various works…
…This is part of the reason why Tumblr sustains a much younger demographic and is in part, removed from mass commercialisation and the infiltration of larger media groups, services and advertisers that so clearly dominate content delivery on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and snapchat…
…Is Tumblr a blogging platform or a social networking site? Well I would like to think that Tumblr can be used as a social networking site and for that reason might be fairly understood as such. However Tumblr culture, user behaviour, creative capabilities and functionalities all suggest that Tumblr is still a blogging platform.
