Image One: An Example of a Blog from the Studyblr Niche (Studyblr Network, 2015)
When I
thought of romanticism, I pictured an 18th Century Italian man,
standing on a barge, writing a poem of undying love to his sweetheart. Alternatively,
a site widely known for its masses of “SJWs”, oddly-specific fanart and stuff
you wouldn’t want your mother to see is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Or, at least it was.
Tumblr.
Maybe your neighbor’s 13-year-old raves about it, or maybe you’ve tried it
yourself. Either way, you know about it. While the connection of “Tumblr”
and “romanticism” might not seem obvious, once the parallels are drawn, it is
perfectly reasonable.
From week
two’s lecture, we know that “[power] comes out of connections/relationships”
(Kuttainen, 2017). Garnering power in the world of Tumblr follows this idea,
but soon turns into a paradox in that power stems from dominant self-identity within
a genre-orientated niche. That is, two people with the same genre-specific
niche (for example, studying) may achieve varying levels of power through
followers and reblogs despite blogging about the same topic. These blogs with a
dominant self-identity to become, what McNeill (2009) refers to as, an “A-List
blog” (pp. 318). Furthermore, the power of “A-List blogs” on Tumblr are highly
subjective. Say, for instance, one blog has over five thousand followers in the
Studyblr (the studying-orientated niche of Tumblr) community. They have a high
standing and are considered “powerful” within this niche. However, to a user in
the Health and Fitness niche, this blog means nothing; let alone exists.
All of this
relates to the shaping the conventions of self-presentation. In simpler terms,
Tumblr’s own abstract version of “romanticism”.
Not in the
sense of poetic and superfluous Italian men, nor in the sense that McNeill
lists in her example on page 316, but in the idea of a collective group of individuals
that emphasize, perpetuate and thoroughly engage in different topics/genres. The
Romantic Era of the 18th Century was symbolized by free expression
and individualism (Kreis, 2017), and Tumblr, aiming to mimic a similar level of
creative freedom, embodied comparative concepts to form the basis of its integral
structure (Byron and Robards, 2017). By emphasizing self-identity as a
convention of self-presentation, it sets the tone of how people establish
themselves within its broader community. This, in turn, influences how users
interact with one another and how they experience self and community identity
while online.
University
lecturers Paul Bryon and Brady Robards state that results from one of their studies
indicated that Tumblr’s self-presentation conventions were “crucial to nurturing…individual
identity” (Byron and Robards, 2017). Furthermore, it was a shared idea amongst
users that Tumblr, as a platform and as a community, was mostly “supportive” and
users felt safe interacting with others while online (Byron and Robards, 2017).
From these findings, it can be articulated that Tumblr’s conventions of
nurturing one’s own identity had significant impact on how they interacted with
each other.
Overall, Tumblr’s
own definition of “romanticism” allows its users to gain and bestow power, establishes
its unique conventions of self-presentation and further influences the dynamic and
experience of self and online relationships.
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REFERENCES ;
Byron, P. & Robards, B. (2017). There's something queer about Tumblr. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/theres-something-queer-about-tumblr-73520
Kreis, S. (2017). Lecture 16: The Romantic Era. Retrieved from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture16a.html
Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place, lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.learnjcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84764_1&content_id=_2759331_1
McNeill, L. (2009). Language and New Media: Linguistic, Culture, and Technological Evolutions. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/Conc-camcontent-bb_bb60/items/getitem.jsp?as_course_code=14-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2&content_id=_1620711_1&course_id=_60553_1&doc_id=40114
Studyblr Network. (2015). [Image]. Retrieved from http://studyblrnetwork.tumblr.com/post/128272253674/url-httpemucationtumblrcom-name-gelita
Tumblr. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.tumblr.com
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