Tumblr

going off on a different but related tangent i think it's more or less inevitable that these kinds of subjects are going to pop up from time to time.

i mean, we all know the general climate of tumblr. it's a place where a lot of very progressive people hang out, with values and ideas that just aren't seen all that often in regular society. and i'm not really talking about feminism 101 or whatever. i mean do you honestly think a random person IRL is going to know what an "otherkin" is or be aware of the idea that some people prefer specific pronouns that they've most likely never heard of?

i find this kind of interesting because i'm wondering at what point did tumblr become a home for the progressive youth?

Tumblr's format doesn't have the same kind of hierarchical nature that you see on Reddit or other sites that rely on upvotes/downvotes as a means of content aggregation. I've always had a suspicion that this is somehow related to it.

Saw this earlier. Thought it was funny.

From my observations that definitely has a lot to do with it. Tumblr has tools that can easily create a echo chamber or a circle jerk as a more crude way of saying it. While other sites with the same tools or similar have this to a certain degree in specific places Tumblr gets it particularly bad due to the format. The closest contender to it is probably You Tube although You Tube is finally getting rid of that stupid huge format change that no one wanted which is perpetuating this right now.

Conversely, it also leads to a lack of an echo chamber. Many people have had posts that ran away with popularity. Echo chambers are usually good echo chambers because no one outside of it is heard.

And that is NOT the case for tumblr.

Hmmm...I see your point there then

:D

Tumblr's echo chamber-y parts come in where it's rubbish to see replies of a post. You could be reblogging the original version of "How to feed moths" and not know that 99k of the 100k notes are of people saying "don't do this, it will kill moths."

So it's easy to come to a false consensus, definitely, either against the op, for the op, positively or negatively.

A blogger talks about venting on Tumblr and how people use it.

That's... a pretty good analysis.

skimming that blog i think it is honestly one of the most genuinely good blogs i have seen on tumblr.

I think part of it might also be people not being as articulate as they want to be about certain issues dear to them.

We do have that weird bias. We expect everyone around us to be well informed, logical and well spoken. We do not hold ourselves to the same standard.

I have seen at least a few times people complaining about tumblr's tone and what not, whilst taking on a hostile and annoyed tone themselves.

edited 27th Aug '15 8:11:38 AM by MrAHR

http://intheshadowofsignificance.tumblr.com/post/128161451210/t4ug-lyf3-intheshadowofsignificance-can

So Tumblr's new layout is going to be stupid.

As been said by other users, if you don't like this update, don't just write posts complaining about the new update, send the staff messages. Of course, be civil about it and don't go full rage on them.

edited 1st Sep '15 10:19:15 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

The root of Tumblr's issues is a huge bulk of its active users assume everyone should be nice and no one should be offended by anything, AKA hugboxing.

it's a bit more complex than that but it also doesn't have much to do with them complaining about the layout, which at this point i feel is something of a Running Gag.

"Hugbox" is a machine used for therapy for autistic people, FYI. Using it as a pejorative is kind of douchey.

Tumblr culture certainly does have some pretty big issues IMO, but I think a lot of it is exaggerated. What people refer to as "Tumblr social justice" is largely just a mainstream manifestation of certain political and philosophical ideas towards social issues that have existed long before. These ideas make a lot of folks uncomfortable because they aim to challenge the underlying assumptions of society at large and it's far easier to defend those assumptions than to change your attitude.

It definitely does. I could rant for a while about tumblr sj culture. The problem is that whenever I do I worry someone will mistake it for being anti-sj, as opposed to self policing.

My immediate followers probably won't, but when they reblog it, then people who don't know me might see it, and from there things could spiral.

edited 2nd Sep '15 7:25:53 AM by MrAHR

I got tired of the sj/anti sj fight a long time ago. Now I just default to "try not to be a douche".

Also the new layout looks way less stupid than the old one. And it helps keep track better of what people are saying, if anything, it should be better for RP'ers.

edited 2nd Sep '15 8:19:49 AM by Ninety

You could just put a bolded disclaimer at the top to that effect.

Karkat: My strategy is instead to keep it to my art blog. Which is the art blog of "AHR's brain vomit that all leads to art". That way I can play a bit more fast and loose with what I say and what I do.

i would say that one of the main issues is that most people on tumblr are young and impressionable. when people are young it's natural to get caught in progressive causes and become an extremist without considering that maybe your position isn't the most coherent or you're actually causing more harm than good with your attitude, or even that you're being blatantly hypocritical.

i'm also reminded of that one post about venting, which adequately explained why a lot of discourse on tumblr sounds the way it does. I'm not going to judge anyone, especially because they're hurting and all, but even when I vent I try not to say anything that can be insensitive or accusatory towards people i've never met.

I've learned from experience over the course of the past year is that anger can be very cathartic. There are so many injustices in the world and they're large enough that they can't be easily fixed, so getting angry is sometimes all you really can do. Getting angry helps to alleviate the feeling of hopelessness when you realize just how fucked-up the world really is, and it paradoxically becomes both a way to address problems and a way of escaping them.

It feels nice, sure. It also helps no-one, won't change anyone's minds, and has a whole lot of potential for hurting others or driving them away from your cause. "Just venting" stopped being a reasonable justification for assholery long ago.

The new layout's rolling out. It was announced 24 hours in advance and despite numerous cries of 'wat' it's still forging on ahead XD