Tumblr Tech Support Said This Would Import Properly Now

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thegurglingcod:

I never entirely bought into the idea of blog years, but I’m not sure what else explains the nostalgia I feel for the pre-Tumblr era. At the risk of sounding as if I am pining for some discursive never-never land, like I was some Frankfurt School refugee who wound up beached on a Great Lake, the internets were smarter before Tumblr:

1) Reblogging — The ease of reblogging creates an echo chamber effect, and works to ossify conventional wisdom when it is still far more convention than wisdom. Rather than quoting and responding, it makes it possible to participate in the conversation in the same way that snapping indicates agreement among some sororities. The reblog without comment is a discursive action stripped of content, kind of like poking in Facebook.

2) The feed — unlike Bloglines or Google Reader, it all comes at you in a single torrent. I follow about 30 people, some of whom are rarely active, but returning to the computer after even a few hours feels like shoveling the driveway during a blizzard. At the same time, it is rewarding, as there is almost always something, when after five minutes of actual work at your computer, you crave distraction. It may be a dozen pictures of Strawberry Switchblade, scanned from mid 1980s issues of The Face or NME, posted by someone you keep meaning to unfollow, but there is almost always something. With regular RSS feeds, there is at least the ability to opt to look at what you want, when you want, but still keep track. It may be me, but Tumblr makes me feel more like a rat hitting that little bar over and over than the rest of the internet does.

3) Follow/unfollow — the social networking aspect always seemed like a distraction, and something that offered the limitations of both RSS feeds and social network, with few of the rewards of either.

So I plan to keep posting now and again, as it’s convenient for things that don’t really make sense on the blog, but I plan to unfollow on Tumblr, and then add some back as RSS feeds.

I imagine none of this is of much interest, but I’m wondering if I’m alone in feeling this way.

Ditto for Twitter. (Oh god Rex, please don't tell me there's a HUGE difference.) Both dashboards are useless once you're following more than 10 people, hence our long reluctance to follow anyone. We've caved a bit on Tumblr; not including the personal ones of YM, we're following 3 people. We've succumbed to Twitter as well, mainly for professional (ha!) reasons. I wish both services would let users pick their "top followees" to display front and center, and put the rest in a rolled up ghetto sidebar reader. But even with that enhancement, nothing is stopping this microblogging shitslide.

I believe it was 99 who once said, "eventually blogging will be nothing more than Wikipedia and YouTube links." I guess we're just doing our part.