To get another Tumblr user’s perspective of the social networking site, I talked to one of my fellow sophomores at Creighton. Caitlin Wright and I are both English majors and we often bond over poetry and ridiculously difficult essays. She’s also majoring in Spanish with a minor in legal studies. And, like me, she is obsessed with Tumblr.
Photo courtesy of Caitlin Wright!
I asked her a few questions about her Tumblr experience, and some of her ideas may resurface later as separate blog posts.
Krysta: How many blogs do you have and what are the topics you normally blog about?
Caitlin: I have three different Tumblr blogs, one of them is kind of like a typical hipster Tumblr blog, so it has a lot of pictures on it of clothing and places and things like that. One of them is more of a comedy blog, so that one has more memes and things that I just think are funny and random posts, and then the third one is dedicated to my thoughts. That one is private, it’s set on private and it has a password and everything, so that one is just for me.
K: How long have you been on Tumblr?
C: I’ve been on Tumblr since, I think, 2010. It’s been four or five years, I think.
K: So what are some of the different trends you’ve noticed on Tumblr?
C: Tumblr’s a really interesting place because people back up these huge trends. The other day I was thinking about the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy that ran the marathon, and everyone backed him up. And the Tumblr community is just so strong … and it’s very interesting because they advertise themselves as this all-encompassing, accepting community, and they backlash at people like no other. I notice trends in current events, in world issues, also things in social media that people on Tumblr are promoting but it’s not always true. I feel like a lot of people support lies on Tumblr, but there’s also a lot of just really random funny stuff. That’s the main reason I use Tumblr.
K: What are some of the more positive trends you’ve noticed?
C: Tumblr’s a good place for body image issues, I think, because I’ve notice a lot of things that, I’ve noticed this a lot lately, but a lot of times people will post about, “You can be any size!” but really they’re promoting people who might be uncomfortable with being overweight, and a lot of times—and that’s come up in the media recently—it’s called skinny shaming, and I think Tumblr recognizes that as well. So the idea that it really does not matter what size you are because some people are naturally skinny and others naturally have more weight, and I think a lot of times we like to degrade those who are skinny because, you know, we think they’re shaming people who aren’t. I think we just need to learn to accept all body shapes and sizes and I know Tumblr’s a good community for that.
I’ve also noticed that there’s just a lot of support for mental disabilities as well, which is awesome. Tumblr’s a really great place to express how you’re feeling and I’ve noticed there’s always been so much support. Random people—that’s the awesome thing about Tumblr—random people will send something to your mailbox, like “Hey, beautiful, wanted to say have a great day;” that’s something kind of special because you don’t actually know them, they’re just telling you that they like your blog, they like what you’re interested in too, and they want to wish you a happy day.
K: And then, in contrast, what are some of the negative things you’ve noticed?
C: Like I said earlier, I think a lot of Tumblr users support things that aren’t necessarily true, so they’ll come up with some sort of idea that some celebrity or politician said some thing or another, when in reality they weren’t talking about that at all, and some Tumblr users will point that out and say, “This didn’t actually happen, we shouldn’t be supporting this,” or a picture might be floating around that’s Photoshopped or something like that. Also the idea that, again, even though there’s a lot of support for certain causes, there’s also a lot of backlash. I’ve also seen a lot of things that degrade others, so even if we’re promoting the idea that we should be accepting of all different social standings and mental handicaps or whatever, I’ve also seen a lot of people that will be like, “I hate when people do this,” and I’m one of those people that thinks that everyone has a right to do what they want to as long as it’s promoting the good of everyone, so we really shouldn’t be hating someone for doing something we don’t like—if they’re not hurting anybody I don’t think it matters.
K: What are some of the things you’ve noticed that make Tumblr completely unique from other social networks, like maybe Facebook or Twitter?
C: What’s interesting about Tumblr—and when I first joined I noticed this—is that there’s this secret rule that you’re not supposed to talk about Tumblr with other people, and I think that’s interesting. It’s kind of this place that you’re supposed to be more secretive about, it’s something where you’re not necessarily supposed to say who you are or what you’re about, and it’s like your alter ego in a way, and I think that’s how a lot of people use Tumblr is to promote this alter ego, this person that they can’t be in real life, but they really want to be. And I think that’s really interesting because Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are so narcissistic because a lot of people are posting pictures of themselves and want to promote their great life or the façade of their life, whereas Tumblr is this place where people try to relay their actual feelings and their actual aspirations, so that’s interesting in that aspect.
K: Yeah, I think it’s weird—and yeah, I’ve noticed that too—it’s kind of like the Fight Club of the Internet, that you don’t talk about it, and yet on Facebook and Twitter you always see screenshots of Tumblr posts everywhere. BuzzFeed is full of it.
C: Exactly, exactly, so people know what Tumblr is but they’re not gonna, like—I think it’s odd if someone promotes their own Tumblr, because that’s typically looked down upon in the Tumblr community. I think I was in ninth or tenth grade when I formed my own Tumblr. I asked a few of my friends, but they didn’t know what it was, but I really wanted a blog and I liked the atmosphere of Tumblr, just reblogging posts and stuff, and I know I watched some video on YouTube, and it was like, the rules of Tumblr, and one of them was like, “Rule #1: Don’t talk about Tumblr” and I was like, “Okay…” I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting into, so that was interesting in that aspect.
Also the whole copyright thing, you shouldn’t copy other people’s posts because—which is true, you shouldn’t, but even if you like copy a picture and post it as your own, that’s really looked down upon and people will backlash at you, I’ve seen that a lot. It’s never happened to me personally but I’ve seen that on other posts, like “You copied this from someone else, I’m gonna unfollow you now!” and I think that’s really weird.
K: Is there anything else you want to say about Tumblr in general?
C: Tumblr specifically is just much different from any other blogging community because I feel like people don’t write as much as they post pictures or memes or just short little blurbs that they think are funny, whereas the actual idea of blogging is just writing down your day or even a vlog where you videotape what you did that day or something like that. It’s interesting that it’s almost all in pictures or in short posts or in fanfiction or something like that, but I really like that too because it’s so different. Tumblr never ceases to make me laugh or make me find a new place that I want to go to or new fashion trends or new music. I find new music and poetry all the time on Tumblr, which is really fun, so I just like the idea that it’s a new place for ideas.
Caitlin’s public blogs can be found at typewriters-anonymous or at wrightersworkshop.
Both “stepping on the beach” and the-groundskeeper’s caption “what i did in graphic design class today is” refer to popular Spongebob episodes. The picture itself imitates an older meme which takes The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s quote, “And in that moment, I swear we were infinite” and applies it to ridiculous situations like this one.
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