Definition of “To Tumble”: to fall, stumble or dive headlong into something.
Before I created a Tumblr account, I was skeptical. I’m already distracted enough by Facebook and Twitter, and the idea of blogging has never really appealed to me. Then I happened to come across a blog that is devoted to Photoshopping the eyes of actor Steve Buscemi (currently on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) onto faces of well-known actresses. Needless to say, chickswithstevebuscemeyes.tumblr.com made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt.
This strange collection of entertaining photos also intrigued me. First off, this was a blog, but not the kind of blog I was expecting. There were no ‘Dear Diary’ entries, just really, really hilarious pictures that were updated every now and again. I came across more Tumblr pages; some hilarious (“Is Ryan Gosling cuter than a puppy?”), some informative (several news outlets have snazzy Tumblr pages) and some just downright beautiful (many photography blogs may take your breath away). To keep track of these new interesting pages, I decided to create my own.
Tumblr is a bit overwhelming at first. It combines elements from your favorite social media sites —like Twitter, you follow other accounts that interest you. Like Facebook, you can share your prose and multimedia for all of your friends and followers to see. Like Blogger, you have the option to write—poetry, stories, journal entries, etc. All these elements are wrapped up into one eye-catching website that millions of people use every day as a way of showing their interests, talents and hobbies.
Tumblr is first and foremost a platform to express yourself. When creating an account, it can help to establish a theme for your blog. Some are centered on photography, others are musically oriented, some are reserved for the fashion-crazed and some feature hilarious memes that are certain to distract you from the homework that has quickly piled up. Some blogs combine all of these interests. The important thing to remember is that your blog represents what you want to share with others. You have the option of making it anonymous, sharing it through other social media, or promoting it to your friends.
Once your account has been created and you’ve picked a theme and title for your blog (side note: finding an original title and site name may be challenging because of the millions of users worldwide—be prepared to get creative!), it’s time to start posting. When logging in, the first thing that appears is your dashboard, similar to a Facebook newsfeed. The key to having an attention-grabbing dashboard is to follow Tumblr blogs that interest you. You can type any term in a search bar, and related blog posts or pages will pop up. You can also get people to follow your blog by making it public (or you can make it a private, password protected blog).
Browsing other people’s blogs can be ridiculously entertaining, but posting your own material is also a fun option. The term re-blogging is one you’ll get familiar with quickly – it refers to re-posting or sharing something from another person’s blog on your own page. Whether it be a quote, picture or song, re-blogging can be a safer option for those who are wary to post their own material. You can also track certain terms—for example, if you decide to track ‘puppies,’ every time someone posts about puppies, you will be notified.
As of March 2012, Tumblr had more than 49 million blogs. Even if you’re not a fan of Steve Buscemi’s eyes, I can guarantee that you will find a blog that interests you, moves you or at least temporarily distracts you from upcoming exams. And just for the record—I can’t decide whether puppies or Ryan Gosling are cuter, either.
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