andressol asked: So you only come here to like posts your friends make? That's a peculiar way to use tumblr. I don't know if I could resist posting anything and just go around liking posts. That would be like...Well....I have given up making analogies. It's just strange, alright!?
Yes, although I follow a handful of others who are mostly fashion-related. See, I ran into this issue with Tumblr: either you use it as a platform to post original work (photos, art, writing - even journal-style writing, etc.), or you’re reblogging things you think beautiful or interesting or funny or whatever. It’s your virtual scrapbook, an expression of personal taste. Or at least that’s what it would be ideally; in some cases, people use Tumblr mindlessly, as simple mirrors of pop culture, or worse yet and too frequently, people use it in a way that self-commodifies. The self-commodification is easy to slip into, and something I especially despise - I would have to ask myself, “Am I reblogging this picture of Andy Warhol because I purely and genuinely like Andy Warhol, or am I reblogging it because I think it says something about me to the rest of the world, says that I am superior in some way, grants me admission to a certain desirable sub-culture?”
Now, I know you can have a mixture of original self-expression and reblogging. And I’m sure some would argue that the unique combination of things you decide to reblog is in itself original self-expression, because no one but you would choose all those components. Undeniably there are some really cool things to discover through Tumblr - beautiful, foreign landscapes; inspiration of all kinds; humor that may help you through the day - but I’ve personally decided that I want to minimize vicarious living and instead engage in more than the Internet. I want to be taking those gorgeous photos, and I want to be drawing inspiration from new experiences, and I want to be laughing in the company of friends.
Just my thoughts.
- April 4 2012 | 2 Notes - Read More →
