Hana Grebovic
SI 110
29 November 2018
Occupy Social Media: Final Report
Argument and Implications
While occupying a social media platform new to me, I discovered the different communities of people on the site. Tumblr, a blogging and photo website, is very different from any other social media platform I previously used. The social media site effects every user in various ways, depending on what they are looking for. The design of the site allows users to customize a blog in any way they want to by either coding the design themselves directly or paying for certain templates. Most users choose a specific theme for a blog and this allows other users interested in the theme to search for their desired content. Just like many other social media sites [Twitter, Instagram, Facebook] there is a follow feature to stay updated on desirable blogs, and an explore page that recommends popular or suggested blogs. Tumblr also includes direct messaging and the user can decide which members are allowed to contact them. Users can show their support or agreement with a post by hitting the heart button or re-blogging the post, which collectively show up on the post as “notes” [similar to a combined like and retweet count]. This feature encourages the blogger to continue their commitment to posting organic and original content.
Unlike the other social media sites, everything posted on Tumblr is public and there is no way to hide posts. This causes users to be cautious about using real identities and posting personal information about themselves. In my opinion, Tumblr is the perfect community for introverted, artistic, and creative people. Every popular blog is oriented around original and mesmerizing photography or dedication to posting only about a certain theme, which encourages users to post more organic and original content. Any unoriginal photography or art posted without credentials is frowned upon within the community and ruin the bloggers reputation. Tumblr gives every user the opportunity to express themselves, thus making the platform a very open and adventurous environment. Due to its design and technological choices, Tumblr allows users to consume interest specific content and improves the exchanging of information flow. The organic content producer’s following increases more effectively through the sharing and spreading of the content through other linked platforms: Twitter, Facebook, RSS, SEO. Other users can find blogs through google searches and group connections made by Tumblr users. If a blog is already popular, the likelihood of exponentially increasing following grows and the blog could appear on related google searches.
User Behavior Analysis
While interacting with users through direct messages and simply through re-blogging posts, I noticed the way users communicated thoughts and emotions freely. Free speech and anonymity are some of the aspects of Tumblr that make it so popular because many users look for a safe place to share their emotions anonymously. I encountered many blogs focused on saving net neutrality, creating a positive and intriguing outlook towards the other users on Tumblr. Figure 1 depicts a pro net neutrality blogger that mocks the F.C.C. and declares net neutrality is a natural right. The entire Tumblr community is directly affected by net neutrality, “A maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally, (Zou, 2018)” and without it every individual user would have slow, limited access unless paying a higher internet subscription fee. This user also incorporates memes, ideas that want to replicate themselves, to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time (Teplovs). The blogger remains anonymous, but is still able to convey the desired message to everyone on the platform- and the internet. Tumblr was able to direct thousands of calls from constituents to congress, which helped push the Obama Administration’s decision to commit on Net Neutrality (Hughes). I reached out to a few popular bloggers inquiring information on how often they posted and asking about their views. Many users I followed had similar responses as the blogger in Figure 2. The bloggers posted pictures, text, or art that reflected their current emotions and the theme of the blog, which attracted many users to click the follow button. The accounts I reached out to all replied to me very politely and I enjoyed making conversation with complete strangers. I took some of their advice and used it towards my own blog, in hopes of gaining more notes and followers.
Even though this online freedom causes many positive outcomes, I experienced the negative outcomes as well. Many users take advantage of the anonymity to post sensitive content and hateful speech, causing others distress and exposure to unwanted content. An example of this came across the explore page, as seen in Figure 3, and immediately caught my attention due to the hateful anonymous comment and the suicide mocking response. Hateful and sensitive comments such as these should be banned from any social media platform and Tumblr doesn’t do a good job at monitoring or filtering out. Another wide-spread incident of dangerous speech surfaced on Tumblr, a discourse around pro-anorexia (Mclaughlin, et al., 2016). Pro-anorexia associates extreme thinness with beauty and advocates this as a lifestyle choice, while doctors and popular belief consider this to be an eating disorder. Many 12-year-old children were exposed to this stigma on Tumblr, since it promoted this harmful behavior of posting pro-anorexia content. In 2012, Tumblr administrators shut down all pro-anorexia communities and any content related to them, but the blog posts still continue to thrive (Mclaughlin, et al., 2016). The Pew Research Center states “Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse. This will lead to a splintering of social media into AI-patrolled and regulated ‘safe spaces’ separated from free-for-all zones. Some worry this will hurt the open exchange of ideas and compromise privacy (Rainie, et al., 2018).” Tumblr could be associated to these free-for-all zones due to its lenient regulations on content and posts. The pro-anorexia communities appear on the platform to this day, showing how poorly regulated Tumblr has been since the very beginning.
Analysis of Technological Effects on Society
Used as a platform for social activism, Tumblr can be used as a promotion for civic engagements and informed democracy. Many users voice their political stances and promote human rights, especially during moments of injustice. When the Ferguson grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown, Tumblr dashboards were full of protests about the racist and prejudice decision (Perkins, 2014). Even though many posts were just opinions on the matter, some were informative and attempted to explain the situation to other users. Tumblr was used as a platform to spread this information through news article links and testimonies from witnesses. These wholesome acts on Tumblr promoted peaceful protest and critiqued any mainstream news sources, creating a major civic engagement for all of the platform users (Perkins, 2014).
Earlier this year, Tumblr sent out an email to all users informing them about the Russian bots they may have been interacting with (Christian, 2018). A part of the email reads, “Democracy requires transparency and an informed electorate and we take our disclosure responsibility very seriously,” and continues on about the disinformation campaigns. Tumblr took a stance to ban all accounts associated with Russian election meddlers, which exhibited the company’s view on informed democracy (Christian, 2018). As of 2018, Tumblr users promote more progressive activism, especially for African Americans, LGBTQ+, and feminists for gender equality.
While reading through the “Tumblr Staff” blog, I noticed the posts they created around promoting black history month (Figure 4) and many others stating they want 2018 to be the year of Black voices. The staff started a campaign called “#WhatWillYouDo” to honor the achievements of these Black activists. Victoria McCullough, social impact lead at Tumblr, says that voter turnout is a huge priority for them. Tumblr even dedicated resources to help users register to vote and targeted eligible members to go out and vote (Ruiz, 2018). While doing this, the platform is promoting itself and reaching new audiences all while expressing the urgency to vote (Ruiz, 2018). While researching the platform, I concluded that Tumblr users and staff are very left wing when it comes to politics. This is the only platform I currently use that openly shows political ideologies and informed democracy.
Tumblr does offer information filters within their safe mode setting, but blocking every bit of sensitive content could put users in a filter bubble. Filter bubbles can be a threat to the informed democracy, since users lose awareness of other perceptions of the world and lose connection with other users (Teplovs). For example, if all nudity is being blocked from the users account, even educational blogs will disappear for the user. Information filters can also negatively affect civic engagement, so instead of generalizing all content into one setting, the staff members should decide whether or not each individual post is ethical. Account moderators could easily sift through inappropriate posts or set up some rules and guidelines about what is and isn’t ideal to post. Sensitive content doesn’t appear for minors, but anyone can lie about age when creating an account, therefore the platform should have a way to actually verify age if there is going to be sensitive content allowed. Overall, filter bubbles are bad for civic engagement and instead of trapping the user in one, Tumblr should find better ways to regulate the users’ activities.
Interactions with Users
The first few days on any new social media platform is exciting, but there was also a lot of effort I had to put into designing my blog. I attempted to code my own design for the blog, but I only tweaked a few things since I don’t know how to code very well. I decided to start a personal blog, just posting pictures, text, and art that represented me and the way I felt. I felt comfortable enough to post pictures of myself and include my age on the profile, but I did not give out any personal information because it is a public blog. On the sites explore page, I looked through pictures and accounts that interested me and began following any blog that caught my attention. I immediately posted a selfie as my first post because I thought it would be the best way for any potential followers to know who is behind the computer. I did not receive more than 2 “notes,” but I was still determined to reach my ultimate goal of 150 notes on a post. The first week was unsuccessful and I did not receive more than 1 follower, so I started to interact with other posts by re-blogging and clicking the heart button. I decided to re-blog only posts that were autumn themed (Figure 5), and this seemed to attract more followers to my blog. I was only able to reach 27 followers, but I did interact with 116 users and followed them. I learned that there are no norms on Tumblr since everyone does their own separate theme and profile, but this also means users will act any way they want- even if it makes you uncomfortable. I received many flattering messages (Figures 6 and 7) saying I am beautiful and amazing, but some people shocked me with how blunt and forward they acted towards a complete stranger. A few inappropriate blogs contacted me and as soon as I opened the blog, I exited right out of it. The lack of regulation on Tumblr shocked me and this is the main reason I believe there need to be moderators checking to see if every post is ethical. The platform is a free-for-all, but that may be a reason it is so great.
I had trouble reaching my goal of 150 notes per picture, and I did not even come close to it. I underestimated the dedication, time, and effort that has to be put in for success with the popularity of my blog. I also believe that my blog failed to reach the goal because it was a personal blog, which is less likely to attract other users. I also began to lose interest and stopped posting more than 3-4 times a week, even though my goal was 5-10 posts a day. It is really hard to stay interested in a blog when there are barely any re-blogs or notes on the posts. Even if I did get a few notes, it would always be on a selfie of me, and the strange people who direct messaged me would be the ones interacting the most. I noticed many users adding several hashtags to every post, and so I realized this exposed the post to more people. Of course, this did almost nothing for me and I only received 3 notes on my pictures, but I kept a good attitude about it because 3 is better than none.
I believed that Tumblr was this mystical, perfect platform for users to share beautiful art and photography, which is true, but I did not expect so many aggressive, inappropriate, and strange bloggers. As I posted more pictures of myself, I noticed the only attention I was getting was from random men that I did not wish to speak to. Only one female contacted me and we had a wholesome conversation about school and future goals in life. I really still think Tumblr is amazing in every way and I am more than pleased to have chosen it as my platform to occupy. I will continue to use it, in hopes of reaching my original goal one day.
The most fascinating part of my experience had to be the civic engagements because it was the least expected. Seeing communities of bloggers come together to protest for justice in America and around the world is such an amazing sight to see. Bringing awareness to the Michael Brown case supported his family and allowed other users to figure out what was happening. I read through several blogs speaking about the matter and my favorite post (Figure 8) really stood out to me because of the intent to unify Black and White people together. It really speaks out against racism and shows how well off America could be with all races fighting for the same thing- justice for all. Tumblr reassured me that everything taught in SI 110 was something I could apply to my everyday life, because things like civic engagement, informed democracy, net neutrality, and incivility occur on online platforms and during real life encounters. I firmly believe that all negative encounters on Tumblr were overpowered by the positives, and I did enjoy my time using the platform and participating in the “Occupying Social Media” project.
References
Christian, J. (2018, March 23). Tumblr bans accounts associated with Russian election meddlers.
Retrieved from https://theoutline.com/post/3871/tumblr-bans-accounts-associated-with-russian-election-meddlers?zd=1&zi=bkaf34ft
Hughes, M. (2017, May 19). How Tumblr reconciles political activism with business. Retrieved
from https://thenextweb.com/insider/2017/05/19/tumblr-reconciles-political-activism-business/
Mclaughlin, M., Park, M., & Sun, Y. (2016, March 3). Sharing Information Promoting
Unhealthy Behavior through Social Media: Examination of the Users and the Content Using the Case of Pro-Anorexia in Tumblr. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/document/7424199
Net Neutrality. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://netneutralitymemes.tumblr.com/
Perkins, J. (2014, December 2). Rave: Tumblr promotes social activism. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/
Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2018, April 25). The Future of Free Speech, Trolls,
Anonymity and Fake News Online. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech-trolls-anonymity-and-fake-news-online/
Ruiz, R. (2018, February 11). Tumblr has a game plan for 2018: Keep handing the mic to
activists. Retrieved from https://mashable.com/2018/02/11/tumblr-activists-social-justice/#hjhi8JpCBmqL
Teplovs, Chris. Fake News… Dis and Misinformation., University of Michigan., SI 110.
Ann Arbor, Michigan. September 6, 2018.
Teplovs, Chris. A Brief History of Information and Information Overload, also: Memes.,
University of Michigan., SI 110. Ann Arbor, Michigan. September 6, 2018.
Zou, Yixin. Information and Regulation II: Net Neutrality and Privacy., University of Michigan.,
SI 110. Ann Arbor, Michigan. October 30, 2018.