Why I Am Obsessed With Tumblr, And Why That Matters

I have been grooving on Tumblr a lot recently (examples are based on my /ambivalence blog, now called Underpaid Genius). I think the combination of following a bunch of extremely visually oriented Tumblr blogs, along with the experience of posting a lot of images — in my case, things I have found on the web, screenshots of movies, or others Tumblr postings — has an almost hypnotic effect.

Tumblr uses the ‘following/followers’ model of social networking, so, as in Twitter or Friendfeed, I am embedded in another asymmetric network. I have 47 followers, and I am following 60 people.

originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd

I am intrigued by enigma, so I am constantly gratified when others turn up something that hovers at the edge of a paralyzingly clear insight to the workings of the world. I like irony. I like snark. I am not reposting the seemingly endless fascination with the female form (thanks to all the little gods) that I share with so many others, but that stream is part of what is missed in the technology world here. A small rebellion.

lost in translation

Perhaps being wholeminded requires multiple facets, and its true that you can’t type prose while playing the guitar, or working in the garden. We need many parts to bring a whole together.

I sense that Tumblr is going to change me as much as Twitter has.