I got a Tumblr.

by captainfisticuffs

Tumblr is enthralled with pugs at the present moment.

So recently I succumbed to peer pressure (my brother, that is) and signed up for a Tumblr account. If you don’t know, Tumblr is yet another of those social networking sites but with an emphasis on sharing content instead of simply conversing. The setup is simple. Get a username and password, start subscribing to pages, and presto! Those subscriptions will begin filling your dashboard, and you can begin posting your own content or even repost other people’s stuff. Honestly, Tumblr wasn’t what I had originally expected. I had thought that Tumblr was more of a blogging site much like WordPress. However, once I dove into the Tumblr world, I realized that it composed mostly of one single thing:

Gifs.

Oh yes. You know those short little videos that people post everywhere on the internet? Well they’re called gifs, and they’re everywhere on Tumblr. People love to post gifs of scenes from their favorite movies or TV shows, or perhaps from other visually pleasing video footage. One of my favorite things about Tumblr is the many “#What Should We Call —” sites, which are dedicated to using gifs to illustrate certain common feelings and reactions to events. The prime example of such a site would be “#What Should We Call Me,” which I believe was the first Tumblr site of its kind. One that is especially relevant to me, being a musician, is “#What Should We Call Conservatory,” which is chock-full of gifs relevant to any aspiring musician. As an example, this one illustrates the horrifying feeling of being called in for an audition. The gif humorously represents the common gut-wrenching experience of music auditions. That’s what I love about Tumblr, and especially about gifs: they’re so relatable! It’s always a refreshing feeling to see that other people go through the exact same things on a regular basis as you do.

Despite the heavy focus on visual content like pictures and gifs, there are some writing aspects to Tumblr. I’ve seen many instances where internet celebrities will use Tumblr to host Q&A sessions with fans. I’ve never participated in one, but I would love to in the future. Also, I do believe that Tumblr has a blogging/writing option, although I’ve rarely seen it used. Indeed, Tumblr is very addicting mainly because of the plethora of stuff on there. And yes, I’ve taken many a few breaks from writing this to look at Tumblr. I’m sorry.

Now my goal is to actually start sharing some original work on Tumblr. So far I’ve only been reblogging other users’ content, which is fine, but I really want to start contributing to the Tumblr community.