Explaining Tumblr to internet folk raised on Xanga and LiveJournal

Tumblr was the first social media platform to feel irrelevant. I’m young enough to have blogged my way through high school, but old enough for my blogging to be unusual. I used Xanga, and then LiveJournal. When Facebook launched, I traded both platforms, and decided I’d communicate my goings-on by updating my favorite movies and TV shows.

In the late 2000s, Tumblr felt to me like a flavorless combination of Twitter’s relentless personal updates and the curatorial blogging of Boing Boing and, at that time, the Gawker Network. Like I said, I didn’t get it — I mostly used the service as a static homepage to host my portfolio.

I’ve come around to Tumblr, largely thanks to people like my colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany, who have pointed me to its most bizarre and spectacular corners. In this podcast, she compares Tumblr to a nicer Reddit, an astute point, and a succinct description of something I’d want in my life. It only took seven years.

Due to some unexpected travel and technical issues following CES, this week’s episode does not feature a transcript. Episode transcript will return next week.