Speaking into the Void

fralusans-ana-marein:

evangotlib:

mikehudack:

ifoundareason:

When I look around at other people’s blogs, I usually find myself trying to decypher how they really are at the other side of their deliberately published self-image. This diagram shows more or less what I think about that. I know there are a lot of different people and ways of posting online, but I think this could be close to the “average” mode.

This gets to the idea of identity projection and social media. On the Web create cool simulacra of ourselves and project these simulacra as ourselves. The best services let us do this easily and efficiently, convincing ourselves and the world that we are this “cooler” version of ourselves. Tumblr is excellent at this, which is a very big reason for Tumblr’s success.

I was cool before I had a tumblr.

(Re all the things this was tagged with: that awkward moment when someone doesn’t understand that tumblr tags can have spaces in them.)

I like to think my tumblr isn’t too skewed towards “look how cool I am”; if you look at just the first page, perhaps, but in sum, it reflects most of my interests, many of my feelings, and tells you a lot about who I am, I think.

It helps that I don’t really interact with my followers that much/that they don’t interact much with me — I’m not constantly trying to get moar notes moar exposure.

For me, this is more true in real life. I don’t much like letting people know who I am. 

I see tumblr as an outlet for another side of me, like a different section of the gray circle. I let more of myself out on tumblr because the anonymity helps me feel safer.