This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Fainite Auguste. Find her on Instagram at @ceilingdancing. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
For a few years, Tumblr had a hold on teens and young adults. People created communities, posted art, and thousands upon thousands of fanfiction.
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a social media website and app founded by David Karp in 2007. It is often referred to as a blog than a social media page. The app has interesting parts that make up the interface. There used to be only a dashboard and a separate trending section. Tumblr recently added a “for you,” a “following,” and “your tags” page.
User Interface
Before the interface was revamped, Tumblr only had only a dashboard and a trending page. The dashboard is filled with people’s text posts, images, GIFS, videos, quotes, or links. GIFs are the bread and butter of Tumblr. It ranges from memes to beautifully edited GIFs of TV shows and movies. Just like any other social media like posts from other blogs that appear on their dashboard.
The most attractive part of Tumblr in my opinion is the reblog feature. Reblogs were and still are everything. Even TikTok added a repost feature to their interface about a year ago. Reblogs allow user interactions to stay high. It also removes the anxiety of posting or “going viral,” it just feels like a fun pastime.
Tumblr users can also “queue,” or set up a schedule for posts if the user won’t be available for any reason. I’ve used the queue to schedule my posts while I’m at school. The most interesting part was the personalization of someone’s blog. I always thought about the ability to edit the blog theme using HTML to control the appearance of the blog. I never learned how to properly code, but I have seen some beautifully designed blogs.
The Rise of Tumblr
Tumblr was the place to be in the 2010s. If you were cool or wanted to be, you made an account. I can confidently say there were two sides to Tumblr: the “aesthetic” and the “fandom” side. People often posted, sky pictures, faceless pictures, line drawings, and whimsical photography. Poetry was also big on Tumblr, but it wasn’t always good.
A lot of the “aesthetic” side of Tumblr romanticized things like domestic violence and self-harm. Lana Del Ray was going viral on the platform. The albums “Born to Die” and Ultraviolence were big inspirations for people. The impressionable teenagers making these posts completely missed the point of the albums.
The other side of Tumblr was part of fandoms. Fanfictions about media and real people were huge. But it also celebrities in awkward positions. People also make and distribute “icons,” another name for profile pictures. Unlike Instagram, it’s common for users to use pictures of fictional characters and celebrities.
And of course, GIFS of particular scenes, relationships, and characters are reblogged to keep the fandoms alive.
So much of social media is about following, influence, and numbers. However, on Tumblr users can’t view other people’s follower count. This creates an equal plane field on the social media website. As a user, you can be a mutual with someone who has thousands of followers and never knows it.
The Fall of Tumblr
As other social media like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter rose in popularity Tumblr couldn’t compete with the new features. It never really grew out of the early 2010s version of social media. Even avid users often jokingly call Tumblr a “hell site.” It also had many bots on the platform. In 2018 it was taken off the App Store because of illegal and explicit content issues. The app was later put back on the App Store. Tumblr began to crack down on NSFW content.
The people who keep Tumblr alive have been there since the beginning or for so long that it feels like home. And as long as the site still technically works people will continue to use it.
So, will Tumblr ever shut down? Or is it one of those things that is here to stay? Let us know!
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