What is Tumblr?
What is Tumblr? We review what it is and things parents should know about this app.
This is how they describe themselves. Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be.” It is a cross between a social networking site (like Facebook and Twitter) and a blog. It is often described as ‘microblog’ as people usually post short snippets of text and quick snaps as opposed to longer diary style entries found in more traditional blogs.
Tumblr appears to have a younger user demographic in comparison with other social networks. To register for a Tumblr blog, you must be over thirteen years of age.
Currently hosting over 217 million separate blogs with 420 million users, Tumblr has been around since early 2007 and was purchased by Yahoo in 2013 for $1.1 billion.
This is a wonderful app to express your creativity in many different ways and to post interests. The interface is so easy to use. It’s also a wonderful place to follow other people’s posts and engage with them on the platform. Communities are easy to join and form on Tumblr.
In the case of internet trolls even celebrities can be victims of Tumblr rants. Taylor Swift was targeted by her own fans.She shared a photo of herself kissing a fan (who has frequently been accused of bullying other Swift fans). After that post fans got angry and even created a mean hashtag: #SwiftiesWantTaylorSwiftDead (It’s weird to say they were her “fans” when in fact they wanted her dead… with fans like that who needs enemies?)
What parents should know:
- You only need to be 13 years old to use the app.
- It is extremely easy to run across pornography through the app.
- There may be other inappropriate content as well for children.
- All accounts are public.
- You can’t block people completely. You can block incoming messages from people but they can still see your content.
- Internet trolls exist on this platform and appear more active than on other platforms.
I rate Tumblr a 2 out of 5 stars for children. It can be a helpful app in helping your child express themselves but the possibility of running into adult content can be concerning.
If your child is using Tumblr please have a discussion with them about internet safety and online protocol. Tumblr tends to be a more impulsive arena where kids post without thinking and while it may seem harmless, sometimes they don’t think about the consequences. To begin talking about these things use the skill of Effective Communication on the Smarter Parenting website and help them make better decisions online using the skill of Decision Making.
That’s all for now. Next week we will review another app. Until then, be safe in cyberspace.