Tumblr

In my ongoing quest to document the different social media websites, I've come to a stumbling block. Some of them I just don't get.

Like Tumblr.

So, I enlisted the help of J. E. Oneil who has a fun little blog and also has her very own Tumblr (which she uses to laugh at all the spam she gets), and I asked her all about it.

What is Tumblr?

A social media site that's a mix of Pinterest and Facebook. You can post text, images, links, and video, reblog and like things, follow and unfollow.

Why? (What is the purpose of Tumblr?)

What's the purpose of any social media? To connect. Tumblr is more focused on being creative, and sharing what you make with others whether it's photos you take or drawings or even stories. There are also a lot of blogs that focus on a particular aspect of something, for example, Escher Girls focuses on the ridiculous physical depictions of females in comics, video games, and anime. There's also Literally Unbelievable, which posts screencaps of Facebook posts by people who take articles from the satirical website The Onion seriously.

How does Tumblr work?

Much like any social media site, you sign up and start looking for people to follow (I suggest searching #tags). You make your posts on whatever you want and comment on the posts of others--if they allow it, otherwise you can only like/reblog. Reblogging is a good way to connect here, much more so than a mere like.

What should a newbie know when jumping in?

There are a lot of good people on Tumblr. There are a lot of bad ones, too. Check out someone before you follow them, otherwise you might end up following a racist, sexist jerk.

How did you get introduced to Tumblr?

I follow a lot of internet comic writers/illustrators, and a lot of them happened to be on Tumblr. When I signed up, they were the first ones I started following.

What is your favorite thing about the site? The community?

There are so many good blogs on it. It's seriously amazing. The community is pretty awesome, almost always full of support. There are also so many different views out there with posts written by very eloquent people. I haven't radically changed my views on anything, but it's nice to see other opinions.

Any Tumblrs (besides your own, of course) that a newbie should follow?

In addition to the above mentioned, I also follow Clients From Hell, which showcases the stories of exasperated freelancers; Pusheen, a comic about a fluffy, fat, gray cat; and Cracked, the magazine-turned-humor website. There are also tons of other blogs out there, for artists, for websites, for television networks. I recommend checking your favorite sites for a Tumblr link and starting from there. And of course, The Spamfiles...


So, anyone on Tumblr? What do you think of it? Share your links so we can find you.

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