The title of this post sounds like the title of a Big Bang Theory episode, and it’s content is perhaps just as nerdy. I re-joined Tumblr last week, after swearing myself off it a month or so ago. At first it was for entirely selfish reasons; to cross-post this blog into the swirling pool of Tumblrs in order to push my idiotic writing under the nose of unsuspecting acquaintances. Which was fine.
The only problem is Tumblr doesn’t really work like that.
You see, over the years I have been a member of Tumblr (yes, yes, I know… I’ve been a member several times), I tripped over this mad group of people in the center of the maelstrom. I would like to say I “discovered” them, but “tripped over” is more appropriate really. They contribute original content, tell the story of their days, and share their life in the same way that people have always done at Blogger, WordPress, and the various other traditional “blogging” destinations. In terms of the usual Tumblr users, they are incredibly unusual.
Along with the their words, they share photos. Snapshots of their life. Things they saw. Strange things, beautiful things, wonderful things, odd things, bizarre things, funny things. It got me thinking.
I had been planning on throwing all photos from now on into Flickr, and using it’s many and varied controls to determine who might find the various pictures of our life. The kids stood in the bath, various school events, christmases, birthdays, nights out, and so on. In among the photos though, there are the pictures of “things” - wine glasses, slices of pizza, road signs - things that jumped out at me while walking along in my own little world.
I’m going to throw those photos into the Tumblr maelstrom. I might process them to within an inch of their life, but they will at least perform one useful purpose; contributing new content into the Tumblr ecosystem for others to share.
Some of us are content creators. Some of us are content consumers. I seem to have a foot in both camps. I guess I better crack open the photo editor…