Occupy Wall Street, Notorious RBG, cottagecore.
More posts about anime and punk rock than bridal trends and politics.
She still uses her own Tumblr regularly as the internet’s residentmeme librarian.
“It allows for experimentation that’s not tied to your face.”
Big Tech has a stranglehold on how we socialize.
The pandemic also brought more Gen Z users to Tumblr.
Tumblr seems to be a refuge for people searching for new social sites.
In January, people launched communities on Tumblr to post and preserve their favorite TikTok videos.
“Our menu has been full.
Tumblr might be just what many young people are looking for.
But Tumblr’s embedded anti-advertising and anti-influencer stances had driven a wedge between the site and monetization.
In 2018, Tumblr notoriouslybanned pornand pissed off users, which led 30% of them to quit.
It’s a shift after years of staying distinctly itself.
Its users see that as a pro rather than a con; it’s more exclusive and intentional.
“I want Tumblr to flourish,” Brennan says.
“I want it to exist forever.
I want to use it forever.
“Tumblr was the first place where I saw those terms being used,” Smith tells me.
Most Tumblr blogs aren’t about the people who make them, yet they’re deeply personal places.
Under their pseudonyms and art, people find communities and explore identities without scrutiny from IRL friends and family.
The social internet is fractured.
Millennials are running Reddit.
Gen Xers and Baby Boomers have a home on Facebook.
Bluesky, one of the new X alternatives, has a tangible elder-millennial/Gen X vibe.
Platforms lean more left or right politically.
Megaplatforms can flatten our online experiences and reward content that fits a mold; smaller communities can enrich them.
Amanda Hooveris a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry.
She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.
