After being criticized (although he was unidentified) for reblogging something into a private group, anthonydever lamented “the sanctimonious bullshit attitude amongst tumblr users over the last month or so about what is and isn’t acceptable on someone else’s tumblr… People, get over yourselves. You use this blogging platform for what you want to use it for and I’ll use it for what I want to use it for.”
I agree, but find it interesting what occurs when you combine elements of a communitarian, cross-pollinating social network with an individual, highly-personal, and fully independent publishing form, the blog. That’s Tumblr, and it creates tensions and problems (and opportunities).
I often worry about whether I’m reblogging too much, or generating enough original content, or posting notes of excessive length (Will this clutter someone’s Dashboard?), and so on. We all want to claim confident indifference to the perception of others, but I at least feel some responsibility to not annoy or offend people who extend their attention to my small scrawl-space.
Sometimes, I get aggravated when someone notes something I covered earlier and I jealously watch as they’re reblogged a dozen times; this is stupid and childish, but I’m human. Another example: earlier today, peterwknox blogged an evidently self-generated quote: “I don’t trust a man who doesn’t drink.” There was a time in my life when I probably would have had that tattooed on my chest, but it was almost a decade ago; I’m now a reformed alcoholic, and the quote pissed me off: who conflates drug use and trustworthiness? If it was in jest, who is so thoughtless as to not consider the possibility that someone nearby has been damaged by alcohol (especially in America, where so many have)?
Then I realized (after drafting several snarky responses): Peter has a blog so he can post what comes to mind, what he wants to share, what he feels like posting; he hasn’t advertised his writing as inoffensive to all, nor did he invite me in promising not to hurt my feelings. I want to say whatever I like as well; that’s the point of the blog.
Were he just some author on Blogspot, I’d have ignored it; but the tenuous connection between us (not Facebook level but more than fellow .Mac-user level) meant that his comment stuck with me. That’s the reality of Tumblr: aside from being a spectacularly great platform, it also connects us to strangers whose opinions can become oddly important, whose behavior and etiquette can appeal or grate as would a roommates, and because we’re all here with our writing and photography and music and private lives, the experience can become radically personal.
