THESIS: the real reason that people stay on this hellsite is not “chronological order” or “the drama” or whatever (per se), but is instead linked to how tumblr, unlike most social media, is not optimised to give content as short of a half-life as possible, but instead is optimised to let content continue to cycle for months, years, even decades. this has in turn led to a more consistent centralised site “culture” in which there is more coherent linkage among different areas of the site, thus also explaining why its content permeates so thoroughly throughout the internet.
[id: screenshot of tags by user bee-dazzle, reblogging from bunjywunjy. #also because it has enough anonymity that people can be interestingly weird rather than curated fake polished#which means it feels like a far more authentic human experience. /end id]
Addition to that ☝, Tumblr actively encourages partitioning off different personas in the form of side blogs, and allows anonymous interaction. It used to allow anons who were not even members of the site. A person can experiment with their blogs and personas with minimal penalty, which in turn adds to the authentic weirdness of it all, which feeds into the long shelf-life of content.
It’s also customizable in a way algorithm based websites are not (I choose and design my own feed) and has a culture that actually accepts that blocking people and curating your own experience is normal and fine and doesn’t make you a coward or..whatever tiktok and Twitter says about blocking people. It feels like my decisions MATTER. What I follow matters. And I have the freedom to control my feed and make this website whatever I want it to be. It’s my space.
Also BECAUSE I curate my own feed there are times where not much happens or no one I follow is posting. It’s a real place, people log on and off and you can feel it, and that makes everything else feel more real, too.
