So at the start of this week, we at The Mary Sue covered what Tumblr is currently like for the benefit of Twitter users who are considering a migration over there in light of Elon Musk’s absolutely clown shoes takeover of the social media network. But here’s the arguably bigger question: What does Tumblr think of all this mess?
Unfortunately for Twitter users, Twitter really is just such a good format to copy from, and it’s a shame that they have to leave all that behind. As a result though, Tumblr has been compiling a lot of the best tweets from the whole Muskageddon and reacting to them. I won’t spam you with any of them, because, I mean, if you want Tweets, you can still just bum around Twitter.
Nah, we’re here for the more Tumblr-y takes on these Tweets—including the following, which has been making the rounds:
HA! Utterly operatic. I truly hope some of you were around in 2020, when everyone was collectively losing their minds over the fact that Destiel was confirmed and Joe Biden won the election. It was a wild night, especially for users like me, who’d never interacted with Supernatural beyond being forced to watch it during middle school sleepovers.
Of course, other reactions that fit within the Tumblr “lore canon” were certainly noteworthy. The funniest was John Green making a good-natured joke about the whole “taste of cock” thing, which, if you don’t know about, is not something I am going to make myself explain:
Just trust that this all makes sense within Tumblr’s frame of reference.
As far as actual Elon discourse goes, trust that we are talking about it! We’re just mostly talking about it through reposted tweets. My favorite bits of discourse are the ones that err more on the side of Pikass:
We really do need more of this. The next time my mom calls me up to rant about Elon, I’m gonna just ask her how big she thinks Pikachu’s dumpy is.
Of course, we do have some people pointing out the things we should be wary of when poking fun at Twitter. For instance, some people are getting a little trigger-happy with the diagnoses, which isn’t exactly cool considering that the main disorder we need to be aware of with Elon is Billionaire Disease:
An incredibly good take.
But for the most part, people on Tumblr are erring less on the side of good, and more on the side of whatever mischievous little gremlins have going on. The general attitude is thusly:
What kills me is nobody even really cares that much about the people in the above gifset anymore. We just know if we lean into it hard enough, we’ll push enough people away.
Well, I say “we” without really caring much myself, but you get the gist.
I had no idea that was a thing. That really is like putting a “kick me” sign on your back, staff must have some of that gremlin blood too.
Why do users want to keep the rent low, so to speak? Because we have a good thing going now, and it took a long time to get there, so I suppose people are worried that Twitter’s demise is gonna bring a bunch of unfunny weirdos over and ruin the vibes.
Therefore, the way to deal with this is to be as unfunny and weird ourselves as possible—which, again, I think is a little extra, but that’s always been Tumblr’s way.
Not just as a user-base, but as a site:
Staff has our backs, I guess? They made their logo a blue check for today, so I have no choice but to stan. What an odd turn of events.
Really, though, if people are actually worried about this and it isn’t just a big joke, I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal. As the user below put it:
I’d be wary of saying there’s a “right” way of using Tumblr, but from my POV, it varies wildly from Twitter, where you’re kind of expected to follow “big” names. You’re not using Tumblr “right” if you’re following all the “big” blogs. It doesn’t work that way. You just sorta pick and choose based on your interests and who shares your sense of humor, and then you go from there. You might even make a friend out of those 45 people: for a long time, I was mutuals with someone who followed the same stoner blog. (Which you can absolutely make fun of me for. I do it all the time.)
As far as how Tumblr “works,” and comparing that to Twitter, many users are simply rejoicing in the fact that our hellsite has lasting comedic power:
But honestly? At risk of sounding pollyanna? I like the fact that I see just as many people trying to find silver linings in all this, and even giving pointers on how to help out new users who might feel overwhelmed. This is especially apt in the art community, where I think Tumblr thrives:
And to end on a similarly positive note, I’d like to share this post, which warmed the cockles of my heart:
A lot of us join not to be involved in all the “hot trends,” but because we’re passionate about things and benefit from having a place to express those passions. For me, I joined … let’s see … in 2014 as well, I think? It was a refuge for me of sorts, not because I ~desperately needed~ a fandom community, but because Tumblr was the first place on the internet I found that talked about things I wanted to talk about. Tumblr helped me realize I was queer and a leftist. Tumblr helped educate me on things that still matter to me today. And yes, it did give me a place to be nerdy, too.
So hey, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Aw gee, I wanna go to Tumblr but I don’t wanna get bullied,” my friend you simply won’t, provided you don’t go around poking the bears. It’s a fun site with a great sense of humor, and the snark is part of it.
And if you do get bullied … well, congrats, you’ve passed the hazing initiation and are a bona fide member of the website now. Maybe you’ll even get to take a dive in the ball pit someday.
(featured image: Nickelodeon)
