The Enduring Appeal Of Tumblr Reveals The Potency Of The Web’s Cultural Memory
When tech billionaire Elon Musk made a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, many Twitter users threatened to shut down their accounts and migrate elsewhere online.
Tumblr – a microblogging platform launched in 2007 long known as a laboratory for social justice causes and burgeoning fan cultures – became one contender.
However, many Twitter users proposing a migration to Tumblr seemed to be those who had abandoned the site only a few years prior.
In 2018, Tumblr content deemed sexually explicit – or NSFW – was banned. The controversial policy led to a mass exodus from the site, the so-called Tumblr apocalypse.
Both as a communication researcher and early era user of Tumblr, I’ve contemplated the site’s unique place in internet culture. And in the years following the NSFW ban, I’ve see...