Students Tumble for Tumblr

Tumblr is the new popular social networking site, which let's its users express themselves in unique ways.

BY EMILY PERL

After finding multiple pictures online, senior Thea Chesney logs on to her account. Once she is on her homepage, the possibilities are endless. From uploading a photo to reblogging a post, Chesney can post just about anything she desires. Once she picks out the perfect picture, she clicks on the photo link to upload it. Now all of Chesney’s followers can see her photo and even reblog it. If you’re wondering how this is possible, it is the work of a new social networking site, Tumblr.

David Karp and Marco Arment founded Tumblr in 2007. Karp and Arment were able to create a completely new way to connect with others. The purpose of Tumblr was to give people the opportunity to post anything they wanted to fairly easily. Currently Tumblr has over 3,000,000 users and is gaining popularity all over the world, including CCHS students.

Although Tumblr may seem like your average social networking site, it is far from it. On Tumblr, people use their profiles to express themselves. Unlike Facebook where you post what your doing or Tweeting where you are on Twitter, Tumblr is a way of showing what your feeling. Anyone anywhere can follow your profile to see what you’re posting. You don’t necessarily have to know the people you follow either.

“Tumblr feels like a family, between you and those you follow,” Chesney said. “When you blog or reblog something, you don’t have to think everything through or be careful with your words. You can be yourself.”

Tumblr seems to be becoming more popular. This is probably because of the uniqueness of the site. With Tumblr, users can post a blog of a photo, a quote, a link, or a video. From there, your “followers” can look at your post, comment on it, or re-post it.

“Right now, we’re going after artists,” creator David Karp said. “Before that we were thinking students and young people.”

Along with posting random pictures, other students have used Tumblr to showcase their artwork.

“I put some of my artwork up there, and you can submit your own paintings or drawings to Tumblr’s that showcase other artists work. Art schools that I’m applying to are currently looking at my Tumblr to see my work and art that I like.” Chesney said.

Others, like Chesney, are doing unique things with their Tumblr pages. Some users create their own personalized backgrounds, while others use Tumblr to post their own original music. Some people just use Tumblr as a place to be funny and show off their personality. With Tumblr, the possibilities are endless.

Some celebrities have even joined the Tumblr craze. Musicians such as John Mayer, Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy, and Martin Johnson from Boys Like Girls all have accounts. John Mayer uses his account as a tribute to his fans. He posts updates while he is on tour so his fans can know what is going on with him. Martin Johnson uses his blog to post pictures as well as have chats with his fans.

Tumblr is quickly becoming one of the newest and most popular forms of social networking. Although it is still a small dot on the radar, Tumblr is quickly growing, making an impact on today’s Internet users.