With over four million users
and growing, Tumblr has established a strong sense of community in a number of
ways. There are different sections of Tumblr that all depend on what type of
content or style you wish to have on your blog. So, for example last week I
discussed how social justice blogs used their follower count and popularity to
engage various communities about the inequalities that were occurring in
certain areas. Because Tumblr has such a diverse range of content, it does become
a little frustrating trying to establish a personal blog as a self-narrative.
In the McNeil reading, the
major point that was discussed was that people who use social networking sites
narrate their lives to Western notions of the humanist self, even if social
networks challenge those notions of the older self. It was motioned also in the
reading that social roles in different social circles can be seen through
social networks, which in the case of Tumblr is very true. The sense of
community is dependent upon the type of blog style a user has, which is very
similar to how social circles and roles work.(McNeil, 2013, pp. 67-68)
So to break it down, the social circles are the type of blog, and
the roles are whose top blog in style of blog (aka who has the most followers
for that type of blog or “Tumblr Famous”). An example can be seen from one of
the largest communities on Tumblr, the "Fandoms". Think of anything that has to
with your favorite TV series, movie trilogies, band or person and there will 9
times outta 10 be a dedicated fandom blog in the realm of Tumblr, and they will consume and ruin your life.
However, one point that
stuck for me in the lecture that within a virtual network, you are not the only person constructing your identity
(Van Luyn, 2013). This can be related to Tumblr in the sense that
certain popular blogs have built up the image of only liking a particular genre
of photos, so therefore if they reblogged something completely different, their
followers might unfollow because it doesn't reflect all that that blogs tried
to established and in many ways, a reflection of their ‘true’ self.
Reference:
McNeill,
L. (2012). There is no “I” in network: social networking sites and post-human auto/biography. Biography 35(1), 67-69. Retrieved from
https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks,
narratives and the making of place, Lecture 4: Networked Narratives. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au.
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