To the right of Tumblr we have sites like Twitter, and Facebook. To the left are Blogger and Wordpress. We all knew that that blogs were just social media in suits but with tumblr it's getting harder to make that distinction.
You've probably been to a tumblr site, probably many if you are an avid internet user, and I think the internet confused are dying off, literally and not so literally. From the outside a tumblr blog appears to be just that, a blog. They are under a url, and you can scroll down and look at pictures, music, video, text, whatever the blog lord decides to post. (example indigo-blog.com)
The inside, however, is a different story. Your dashboard is full of the posts of other people you follow, as well as notifications of interactions, messages, new followers, and the like. So while the outside of tumblr is a blog the inside is purely social media.
This also creates a dichotomy among your viewership. A blog may have many visitors to their external site, people who come for the posts. Conversely they may have a large number of tumblr followers. Tumblr followers are a new breed of internet fan, quite like twitter followers they thrive on interaction. They love to reblog, ask questions, and reply to posts. It's tough to see the line between friends and fans.
There are numerous tumblr-famous entities that supply their fan-friend-follower hybrids with a sort of connection they'd never get from a celebrity. It's a great site for the attention craving youth of today, because like Facebook, it let's us all feel a little famous.
Tumblr reflects the reality of any blog. Social media is really just networking-lite, streamlined by use of the internet. Every blog has a complicated web of social interactions going on under the surface, tumblr has merely constructed and interface and gathered a community of individuals under a single banner, all their to talk and blog together.
What is sometimes lost in the hustle and bustle is the importance of real living. The content of a blog comes from real life. Bloggers are meant to network with or become active personalities and display their talent. Not merely reblog from another blogger.
Though let's not be old farts about this. It's the sign of a revolution. It's a baby renaissance. Every individual is realizing their desire to be an active personality, and their desire to share their interests with whoever's interested. Now we're just looking for a balance between self-improvement/exploration and a mentality of seeking notoriety and fame. Tumblr is the next step in this toddler revival. This adolescent revolution. This infant enlightenment. This terrible two's of progressive movement. That's enough with the baby analogies.
