“But [Tumblr’s] value, of course, is more than just what it isn’t, and what it points away from. Despite all the drama and discourse lurking in its corners, it’s easy to make your own Tumblr life as simple and as happy as you want it to be. There are no algorithmic threats lurking around every corner, no onslaught of promoted posts from politicians or influencers. More than anything else, Tumblr in 2020 is a self-sustaining ecosystem. It’s a semi-sealed and increasingly fertile terrarium, a nigh-impossible perpetual-motion machine of a platform going productively psychotic in its isolation.”
Let’s be honest, going productively psychotic in isolation is this year’s mood.
Tumblr is a hellsite but goddammit its our hellsite
This really reminds me about this paper I read about private roads that weren’t very well maintained. The thing is, nobody goes down one of those roads unless they have to, they have a lot of ground clearance and confidence, and even then they go slow and careful unless they have a muddin’ truck. So even if the road is technically a through road, ain’t nobody going to go speeding through there, making noise and endangering children. Which, it turns out, is seen as a positive by many residents, enough to offset the whole having to own a 4×4 thing.
Sometimes, things that look shitty are actually protective.
tumblr is for the outcasts. it’s always been. for better and for worse
