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Confessions of a Tumblr user
MΓRNING. For the latest edition of Screen Share, our Creative Strategist Alisha Brocklebank takes us on a quick tour of her most cherished Tumblr finds, with a side of 2010s era microblogger wisdom, of course. Take notes!
I redownloaded Tumblr 5 years ago after last logging in around 2017, which unfortunately meant I couldnβt remember my old password β I cried. Despite social media platforms as we know them now slowly dying, Tumblr always felt like an escape from the others. I recently downloaded Opal which blocks your attempts to use other apps during set periods in a bid to help you regain focus, but Tumblr is the one social media app I donβt use it on. I never feel FOMO from it, it never gives me that feeling of βI NEED to checkβ. Maybe itβs due to the more mindful scrolling structure, that satisfying itch scratched by sifting through to find something you connect to, instead of content just being served to you on an algorithmic platter. Above all, I love the anonymity of Tumblr. As someone with a background in photography, I can post something here just because I like it, and find comfort in this way of communicating and understanding others.
Though Tumblr is now part of the in*ie sle*ze revival conversation, I believe the return to the app reflects something much bigger: a mass craving for normalcy. Covid saw the whole world become chronically online, so much so that everyone and their mother knew what it meant to be chronically online, and became part of the joke. So if the first half of the 2020s was defined by doomscrolling, the second half has seen a huge shift towards finding our IRL hobbies again. Tumblr is regaining its relevancy in our everyday screen time, but what do we even want to see on our screens anymore, if so many comeback users (like me) now find the IRL so much more valuable?
LAST POST THAT GOT ME THINKING: APPRECIATION OF THE SMALL THINGS
Despite my introduction, normal isnβt a word I would use to describe our current world. Kanye West has declared heβs a Nazi, a fascist is running America, and this just touches the surface. So when I go on my phone I want to be reminded that other people have similar feelings towards this hellscape; of collective hope. Maybe thatβs why when I see pictures on my feed of tyre tracks through mud or sunlight at the end of a tunnel, it feels like a welcome reminder of what child-like wonder felt like. A revert to the way things once were in some respects: the pre-pandemic, somewhat soothing slow-burn of screens into our brains. But, like all images, they are up for interpretation.
A SOCIAL MEDIA TREND I LOVE/HATE: RE-REBRANDS
Recently, my Tumblr has been full of old pictures of Lady Gaga: her plethora of 2010s looks, doing yoga, selfies, and so on. If you are also one of her Little Monsters, you will be gagged over her recent rebrand going back to where it all started: ruling over dark pop. Whilst her Chromatica album aged like cottage cheese (Gaga please donβt hate me), The Fame and Born This Way set a whole new aesthetic and material standard. And ever since these years pop culture has been in a drought, until BRAT, of course. Whilst Gaga was pure recession pop, BRAT was more existential, but both managed to keep everyone but cis straight men fed. Until Timothee Chalamet decided to rebrand late last year that is. Timotheeβs once weird, artistic feminine side went through the bro-ification machine; going sport mode and reaching the majority white, straight male mass of America. He is no longer the loser twink and when he does do something strange, it is met with full frat gratification (fratification?).
In a world of lookalikes, imagine being the real Santa and no one believing you. The conclusion? People want vibes. Whilst Timmy might have wanted to appeal to βwiderβ audiences, Gaga kept her moral conscience. Still, the fact is people love both βrebrandsβ because they deliver a mood, which is the ultimate essence of Tumblr.
A POST I KEEP COMING BACK TO: MY VILLAIN ORIGINS
In the beginning of the βinnocentβ internet, there was Tumblr and with that came the act of pinning your sense of self to a certain style or look, aka β an aesthetic. Mine was morute (defined by a combination of βmorbidβ and βcuteβ). Images have always been a way to help me figure out my feelings towards what was going on around me, but why does it help when theyβre so highly aestheticised? Just like millennials who couldnβt build houses but focused on building auras, we utilise images to build moods reflecting the lack of overarching structure elsewhere. But, before I had Tumblr or a phone, it allowed me to be a loser with interests and hobbies, and whilst (maybe, hopefully) Iβm coming back into that era now, I will still willingly submit to Addison Rae keeping Tumblrβs spirit alive.
MY LAST SAVED POST:
MY CURRENT FAVOURITE ACCOUNT: I just moved into a new apartment so maybe thatβs why I really like @roomhole. All these liminal, abandoned spaces are comforting to me too.
MY EXPLORE PAGE IN 3 WORDS: rumpelstiltskin beta blocker
FIND ME ON: Instagram, @trinket.stealer
Thatβs all for this week readers!
I redownloaded tumblr last year and I canβt seem to find a groove with the following the right people and have a decent algorithm. It feels like a lot of junk and weird spammy stuff. How did you get back to this tumblr utopia?