Turrible Tumblr
A few weeks ago, I took a sabbatical from LJ to explore other means of blogging and social media. Most of us have Facebook accounts, and a few of us ramble on Twitter from time to time. But there's much more out there.
Which is why I took a look at Tumblr, one of the largest social blogging sites on the web. The concept seemed intriguing enough -- post a blog in an easily accessible community, add photo/video to enhance the quality of the post, and engage in conversation with others about that given topic. Slick formatting and an organized interface made the experience less rugged than LJ -- it's a more polished experience thanks to the clean alignment of photos and modern default fonts.
Seeing as I'm a big hockey fan, I mustered together a few entries focusing on the NHL and the Boston Bruins. I clicked post, expecting to launch an intelligent and informed conversation on the merits of the year's team and its playoff chances.
Boy was I wrong.
Tumblr is porn for teenage girls. I don't know how else to describe it.
If you enjoy glitter-enhanced photos of half-naked hockey players popping up on your feed, along with random 18- and 19-year-old puck bunnies liking and commenting on your every post, then it's the place for you. Polls about who's the hottest Bruins players? Comments along the lines of "OMG i <3 TAYLOR SEGWIN"? Picture after picture after picture of old Internet meme's? You might enjoy it.
But I didn't. So I tried blogging about other topics, thinking maybe the hockey-sphere on Tumblr was somehow connected to the Beaver Fever epidemic I keep hearing so much about. I belted out an entry on literary journalism -- an uncommon method of writing that I'm itching to someday meld into the mainstream media. Now there's a topic that could garner some new followers and decent responses... maybe someone else out there was thinking the same thing.
Wrong again. The only type of response I elicited was more picture spam on my feed and a handful of "likes" on my post from guys that looked like they should make an appearance on Chris Hansen's latest show.
After giving it a week, I deleted my account yesterday. I don't think I'll regret it.
Which is why I took a look at Tumblr, one of the largest social blogging sites on the web. The concept seemed intriguing enough -- post a blog in an easily accessible community, add photo/video to enhance the quality of the post, and engage in conversation with others about that given topic. Slick formatting and an organized interface made the experience less rugged than LJ -- it's a more polished experience thanks to the clean alignment of photos and modern default fonts.
Seeing as I'm a big hockey fan, I mustered together a few entries focusing on the NHL and the Boston Bruins. I clicked post, expecting to launch an intelligent and informed conversation on the merits of the year's team and its playoff chances.
Boy was I wrong.
Tumblr is porn for teenage girls. I don't know how else to describe it.
If you enjoy glitter-enhanced photos of half-naked hockey players popping up on your feed, along with random 18- and 19-year-old puck bunnies liking and commenting on your every post, then it's the place for you. Polls about who's the hottest Bruins players? Comments along the lines of "OMG i <3 TAYLOR SEGWIN"? Picture after picture after picture of old Internet meme's? You might enjoy it.
But I didn't. So I tried blogging about other topics, thinking maybe the hockey-sphere on Tumblr was somehow connected to the Beaver Fever epidemic I keep hearing so much about. I belted out an entry on literary journalism -- an uncommon method of writing that I'm itching to someday meld into the mainstream media. Now there's a topic that could garner some new followers and decent responses... maybe someone else out there was thinking the same thing.
Wrong again. The only type of response I elicited was more picture spam on my feed and a handful of "likes" on my post from guys that looked like they should make an appearance on Chris Hansen's latest show.
After giving it a week, I deleted my account yesterday. I don't think I'll regret it.