What really defines us? BLOG #2

David Karp first launched Tumblr in February 2007, and within two weeks had gained 75,000 uses. (Wikipedia, 2013) It was created in order for its uses to share, create, make and embrace a whole new online identity. You can upload photos of you own to your blog, or you can share pictures from your favourite blogs that you follow. Not only can you upload pictures, you can share ideas, feelings, music, gifs (moving pictures from movies/ T.V shows with what the characters are saying underneath or celebrities doing funny/interesting things), basically anything that takes your fancy as shown in the picture below.

Tumblr is a way of expressing yourself; it’s a way of showing what you love, embracing your inner weirdness and telling the Tumblr world who you aspire to be. Some blogs are full of inspirational quote, some full of their favourite celebrities/ heroes, some are pictures taken by the owner of the blog and some are full of music. No matter what they are about, no two blogs are the same. Some may go along a similar path, but with different reasons why. Just like the Songlines in the aboriginal dreamtime. ‘A song’, he said, ‘was both a map and direction finder. Providing you knew the song, you could always find your way across the county.’ (The Songlines, 1987, pg. 13) Like with any blog, people are just trying to find their way, trying to figure out which direction they chose to go in. Sometimes people forget about their Tumblr, and come back months or years later. It’s like looking at another version of you for some, a version that you almost forgotten, but for others it may be the same.

Like a Songline, our blogs and what we upload define us, shape us and help us grow. Some may inspire us to become fitter, or to travel the world, take up photography or even learn to cook. No matter what we chose to do, to me, Tumblr is a way of life. You either have one or you don’t. Having online accounts where you blog or express yourself is a part of everyday life now, whether it be on Tumblr, Google+, twitter, Facebook, etc. Everyone is the same, traveling on the same vague line, yet we are all different, branching in different directions creating our own Songlines.

Reference List

Chatwin, B. (1987). The Songlines. London, Great Britain:British Library Cataloguing.

Wikipedia, (2013). Tumblr. Retrieved from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr

Picture via own tubmlr.