Tumbler - On the Edge of Internet Glory
A vast universe of pictures, text, quotes, links, conversations, audio and video clips exists on a website known to many as "Tumblr." (I am correcting the site's spelling error for the sake of grammer.) Everything displayed on a computer screen is composed of pixels, and Tumbler is no exception. Though it does share this key characteristic of being pixelated with every other website ever, Tumbler is a new, unique way for people of all ages to express themselves through the microblogging world. According to David Karp, Tumber's founder (and high school dropout, thus the mispelling), in 2009 there were about 2 million unique bloggers on Tumbler, and 10,000 new people signed up for the website each day. Of those 10,000, 85% remained active. By those statistics, Tumbler should amass 3,102,500 new bloggers in one year. In approximantley 2,183 years, every person on the planet should have a Tumbler, providing the global population does not fluctuate in any way anytime soon.
A microblog is a form of a blog. It differs from a traditional blog in that its content is framed in an area that is 600 pixels wide. The small space demands its own suffix! Thus, in most instances microblogging is much akin to what a person can simply do on Facebook. Why the craze then? Why will Tumbler encompass the world's population in 4194 AD?
Tumbler has a few key features that give it it's great appeal. First, and foremost, nude and pornographic images are a-okay on Tumbler. On Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg will get disown you from his website for posting nudes or other images deemed as containing "inappropriate content." Tumbler also has two other features that Facebook simply cannot compete with: a blogger can post an entire conversation bet between two people on Tumbler, or an audio sample that looks nice and is embedded into the page. One simply cannot do that on Facebook. The act would require far too much effort on the user's part. Tumbler is much easier to operate.
Another appeal to Tumbler seems to be the commuinities built upon a function of the site known as "Reblogging." A blogger can "reblog" a post that another user posted, denoting that the user that reblogged the post finds it unappealing in some way, and wishes it to return from the idiot user it came from. The user from which the post originated is notified that someone else has reblogged their blog's content. They then have the opportunity to check out that person's blog, and reblog whatever fetid images they find. The cycle continues. Because of this function, people across the world can share their varied hatred for many different kinds of things and ideas. Furries, distressed fifteen year olds, horny bros, and college freshman who believe their long-distance relationship is forever can connect and share their hatred through the internet in this new, fantastic, way!
While we here at TMP do not understand the world's fascination with hatred, we endorse free speech and think that Tumbler is a great way to massively communicate what needs to be removed from today's society.
Gatemaster, an internet regular, said in regards to Tumbler: "It's like 4chan, except without all the kiddie porn! I love Tumbler!" He, and many other students at UCSC have started to experience the Tumbler craze. It will not be long before the entire world catches on, too!
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