My very first article for MasterWP was on the resurgence of tumblr. Then and there, I declared that tumblr was returning to popularity! Fast forward to the end of the year and it seems as though I may have a future in fortune telling if WordPress development doesn’t work out. The recent mass exodus of users from Twitter may be the revival that we were looking for.
I have heard (for the first time recently) of Mastodon and how we should all head over there to continue our social media journey. Rob even spoke about it last week questioning if it will stand the test of social media time. (Which isn’t that long in the first place, Twitter is 16 years old). But what I and a few others question the most about Mastodon is….it seems like more work than fun.
If social media isn’t fun, it’s not for me.
That may seem shallow but let me explain myself. See I am a millennial.
That’s it, that’s all the explaining I need to do.
But seriously. Social media has helped me by getting me into tech, helping me find my wonderful current employer, and helping me meet some of the best friends ever. As bad as people can get beyond their anonymity and keyboards, I have a thousand more stories of wonderful journeys I’ve accomplished because of social media. Do you know why that is? Because along the way I had fun.
Mastodon seems like work not fun. I am not on social media to work.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t
Who was there for you when you needed to find other like-minded souls in the BTS ARMY fandom?
tumblr was.
Who was there for you when your favorite show ended horribly, and you needed to read some fresh fanfiction to wipe the bad writer taste out of your mouth?
tumblr was.
Matt Mullenweg shared stats on November 7th about the increase in downloads/impressions for tumblr.
Mullenweg states that over the past 7 days, iOS downloads are up 58% (30% impressions), and android downloads are up 57% (50% more impressions). This is a huge deal as Automattic had to do a lot of “cleanup” after purchasing the company in 2019. Now here we are 3 years later and if you are as enthusiastic as the tumblr social media manager (a person after my own heart) there is no reason why those stats won’t continue to climb in the coming days.
Twitter possibly crashing and burning shouldn’t be celebrated.
Twitter has been my favorite social media site since I joined in 2010. What I stated earlier in the article was the truth. It was where I got my start in tech, gaining valuable resources from places like @BTPipeline and @freeCodeCamp. It is also where I met some close friends of mine with whom I traveled the U.S to go to music festivals. Twitter was also where I first heard about major news events, way before any major publication. In the last decade, I have watched the entire world change and my 20s be shaped by people from all over the world. Whom I would’ve never met on places like Facebook. John Locke said it best here
What a valuable resource we are losing. There are so many issues in communities all over the world that never would have gotten attention if it wasn’t for Twitter. So many undiscovered artists and creators would still be unknown. Many injustices would still be covered up if it wasn’t for the community and connections made there. While people love to call Twitter a “hellsite” I for one think of two ways to respond to that. One, your timeline is yours. You created and curated it. If you made it hell that’s on you. Second, Twitter succeeded in saving people, cultures, and even languages. If you were not privy to that what a grand thing you missed!
So are we going back to tumblr?
Heck yes! Well, I am at least.
tumblr issued a thread of the reasons to join and it makes a good case to continue a good bit of the positives we saw on Twitter plus more.
My favorite reasons: You can turn off algorithmic recommendations, there is a long character limit that helps to avoid confusion, multimedia posts are expanded and of course….OF COURSE…THE FANDOMS!!!!
Maybe we are all overreacting. Maybe Twitter will still be here and popular. Maybe Mastodon will turn out to not be so much work. Maybe we have all been mass dreaming since 2019 and will wake up to a time before COVID, Musk Twitter, and that awful Game of Thrones finale.
But come what may, Long Live tumblr!
