3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing - artichoke web design

3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing
Microblog Sensation: The Growing
Popularity of Tumblr
Emily Marquart
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Abstract
As people’s lives become more and more intertwined with their online interactions it is important to
understand why this is occurring and what this means for their identity, both on and offline. The research
into what makes a social media site such as Tumblr so appealing to bloggers gives an insight into the
direction other blogging platforms may take in the future. In a world where digital publishing is becoming
exceedingly prevalent research into this field is significant.
Keywords
MicRoblogging • iMMeDiacy• coMMunity • social netwoRKing • tuMblR
Microbloggging is one of those words that comes up fairly regularly in discussions about
the effect that technology, particularly social networking, is having on our lives so it is
important to have a clear understanding of what the word means. The Wikipedia definition
of mircblogging is: “a form of blogging that lets you write brief text updates (usually less
than 200 characters) about your life on the go and send them to friends and interested
observers via text messaging, instant messaging, email or the web” (Wikipedia as cited in
David Karp, the creater of Tumblr. Photo taken by Jonan Basterra ©
70
Java et al, 2007, 1).
Microblogging differs from
regular blogging due to its
brevity. Kristina DeVoe states
that “freedom and brevity
are the current appeal of
microblogging over traditional
blogging, which often focuses
on established topics using
stylized and sometimes
lengthy prose” (DeVoe, 2009,
3). Microblogs are short bursts of information that do not require the author to plan or
invest as much time in as a traditional blog that you would perhaps find at Blogspot or