Who you are versus what your blog is.
I have been discussing with some people on Tumblr the recent outbreak of negativity that fellow Tumblr users are throwing out blindly and not so blindly against other users.
Do you think that by reading anyone’s blog (be it on Tumblr or Wordpress or Blogger or…) you really know that person? And if you do feel as though you really know that person, what is it that would compell you to vocalize your dislike or like for them based upon what you’ve read?
I would like to believe that everyone’s Tumblrs/blogs just act as a very small aggregate of their interests, things that catch their eye/attention, and various snipets of their lives. It seems pretty hard and ultimately unnecessary to form a concrete opinion about a person based on what they write and/or share.
The social element of a platform like Tumblr makes it inevitable that people will interact with others based upon interests and in some cases, real life interactions. Healthy debate and disagreement or agreement with someone’s posting is part of the greatness of Tumblr, the beauty of the reblog. However, to me there is a huge difference between liking or disliking a posting, theme of a blog, opinion of a person, etc… and disliking/liking the person who posted it. Why even expend the negative energy?
In no social setting will everyone ever “like” everyone but is this medium the appropriate place to make that deduction about a person? Aren’t we all much more complex as people than our blogs? Isn’t our blog just one piece of the puzzle?
Responding to someone’s posts because you find the topic intriguing or have something to add to the idea is awesome and often educational, but unless an average user is creating a brand out of their identity, isn’t it a little off-base to claim to “know” enough about someone from what they choose to blog enough to say disparaging things about them?
To me, that just isn’t what this whole Tumblr phenomenon is all about and it is sad that this appears to be a powerful enough of a force that it actually turns people away from it as a medium for blogging resulting in them feeling as though they don’t want to engage in it anymore because of the reactions of those who just can’t seem to simply ignore the blogs and people that they don’t “like.”
Shouldn’t we all be entitled to say what we wish within our own space without being personally attacked for who we are and what we choose to share?
