Tumbling in Tumblr

I am currently captivated by the little internet nook called Tumblr. I was reading through some pages and found a news article on David Karp. I found him such a genius for having been able to create a site like Tumblr. Anyway on to why I like Tumblr.

I like it because it's neat. It's organized. It's not complicated to use. It actually feels like Multiply because it allows you to click buttons according to what you want to post. Whether it be text, photos, audio, video. I like the quotes feature because I haven't encountered that in any of the sites I have joined online. It also feels like Facebook and Twitter because you can just post short snippets of your day. Even if the interface is designed with an actual textbox as opposed to Facebook and Twitter's one liner space, there is that feeling of finiteness which makes you post things in a concise manner.

I stumbled on an article in Wikepedia that defines this activity we call blogging.

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.^[1] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

I've started blogging as early as 2004. I remember starting up in Oprah's discussion boards and Online Gratitude Journal. Then I moved on to Xanga.com because it was the first blogging site that allowed for an easy way to connect with other people. Then I moved to Multiply and Blogger and Facebook. I also tried Live Journal and Wordpress.

Each Blog hosting site has a different feel to it. Different personalities. From my experience Xanga gave me a taste of intimate online relationships. Most of my online blog friends come from Xanga. Multiply on the other hand gave me a taste of connecting with my physical circle of friends in a more meaningful way. The private life becomes a little bit more exposed as Multiply allowed a sharing of a variety of mediums to express how your life is going for a day. Blogger feels more like a professional blog where entries have to be quite thorough and targetted to a particular audience of topic. I quit Live Journal and Wordpress because I had a difficult time navigating through them.

In all my years of blogging I find myself to be moving around a lot. Never really staying in one place too long. It's almost as if the chapters of my life move internet addresses according to how it feels or what phase I am in. Private experiences are logged in Xanga. Experiences I am willing to share with the public are logged on to Blogger or Multiply.

I've decided now to focus only a few sites to concentrate on full blogging activity. Aside from simple information sharing, it becomes an activity of reflection and a writing exercise. I've veered away from full length blogging on social networking sites because I didn't want to limit myself to the network that I knew. There is a kind of freedom in anonymity and it becomes more interesting for me to keep writing when I don't know who is reading.

In that way, writing is not only an act of reflection but also a discovery.

However, the fluctuating spurts of creativity has bogged me down quite so that the pressure to keep the words flowing gracefully actually ended up paralyzing the stream of consciousness that digs the words out of my head. That's when I started looking for an alternative.

Micro-blogging became an option. I started finding the value of micro-blogging when I resurrected my Facebook pages. But again, I wanted something that veered away from social networking especially when it was concentrated only on a particular circle. Twitter found its way on my list and finally Tumblr.

I have to thank January Warrior for sharing it with me.

So Tumblr.com is a little corner in the infinite space of the Web that draws out spurts of meaning from someone who needs mental de-cluttering. The easy to navigate pages and the creative interface archive gives me a feel of smallness, intimacy and meaning. Tumblr.com is quiet because discussions are kept to a bare minimum. There seems to be an atmosphere of respect and even friendly reverence for the freedom of expression.

Another Wikepedia article defines tumbling as such:

A tumblelog (also known as a tlog or tumblog) is a variation of a blog that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, tumblelogs are frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences while providing little or no commentary.

A tumblelog is a quick and dirty stream of consciousness, a bit like a remaindered links style linklog but with more than just links.

So when the clutter stack becomes too overwhelming for spring cleaning and de-blogging, I'm off to the Tumblr hideaway.