Tumblr is a website that combines blogging with social networking in a whole new world of creativity and expression. We tumblr bloggers know all the blog "types": the grunge blogs, the humour blogs, those silly teenagerpost-type blogs, et cetera. Most of the time, these blogs are seemingly harmless. However, we often come across the not-so-harmless blogs. The pro-ana/mia blogs, the blogs that glorify mental disorders and self-harm, the blogs that naive teenagers will look at and fall victim to. I love tumblr for its hilarious and relatable content and also for allowing me to make great friendships. However, because of all the glory these disorders are given, I find myself being driven away from the website as a whole, despite my blog falling under the "humor" category. Personally, I've dealt with self-harm, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, and I never thought it was something beautiful or deep, never. It's not poetic and it doesn't define you. It's something you have to be strong for, and yet all these bloggers post photos of girls with scars all over their arms and their bodies, stick-thin girls with thinning hair, and text posts encouraging girls to stop eating and live the pro-ana lifestyle. It's sickening to see such horrible disorders being encouraged. Other disorders such as social anxiety and also things like staying inside on the internet all day, having no social life, disliking people, and never doing anything productive are all glorified on this website too. What do you guys think? Does it bother you that a good portion of tumblr bloggers promote the wrong things instead of promoting recovery and getting help? Has it ever driven you away from the website? Discuss.
I' haven't been on tumblr much, but the problem you mention isn't limited to that community alone. Facebook groups also range from harmless fun and educational to offensive and even disturbing. While I often scowl at the fact that vocal idiots have found their way to yet another medium, I realize that the medium itself cannot be blamed. On the contrary, the global nature of these communities have given us the opportunity to respond to and openly criticize them when before we could only stand idly by. And if you don't feel like stepping into the ring, you are given plenty of opportunities to just ignore these dumbfucks (at least this is true in Facebook's case). I can understand the frustration of a group that you couldn't disagree more with being successful but in the end, you're only as involved as you want to be. It would be petty to let yourself be driven away by the likes of them.
While I agree that thinspo and communities that promote various mental disorders are not only found on Tumblr and definitely haven't originated on the blogging site itself, it seems to have a larger-than-usual community than other social networking sites that I personally have been a part of. On Facebook, there are pages that are home to not only these types of people, but also bigots and so much more. However, it's not very often I hear complaints of triggering pages on Facebook. On the other hand, I probably see at least one text post or rant each time I visit tumblr about how nobody wants to see all this negativity on their dashboard. Because tumblr is a mostly young community with most members bobbing around the 14-24 age range, they are more vulnerable and ultimately it shows in the amount of blogs that promote these disorders. Tumblr has gotten articles concerning the dangerous amount of triggering content its users post in teen magazines even. I recall one entitled, "Is Tumblr Messing with Your Head?" in Seventeen magazine. Tumblr isn't the first site to have this problem, but it's very significant and can be hard to avoid because just like you can't control what your friends say on Facebook, you can't control what people reblog. But unlike other sites, this one has a reputation for being a home for thinspo bloggers and such. A solution could be to unfollow whoever reblogs that type of content. It's a hassle and it gets tiresome, but I would rather not give up the good times I have blogging because of foolish people. I was just curious to hear what both tumblr and non-tumblr users had to say about this issue. Thank you for your well-written thoughts.
I have a tumblr account but I don't really use it. However, as someone who is interested in mental health and hoping to go there on a professional level one day it saddens me to see people promoting them. They are labeled disorders for a reason and can do serious problems to your body. Of course, I would like to know why they are promoting it, is it because it makes them happy and they want to share this happiness? Is it because they don't want to go through it alone? Maybe they think it's the way forward and truly believe in it. I don't know but it's not healthy. I wouldn't blame tumblr per se as they are just the site and it is a place of free speech and expressing ones opinion so how can it be stopped? Since people and governments are trying to do all they can to reduce mental health and make people better then this is being anti-productive. I just hope we can educate people well enough to make them see how silly these blogs are.
I hardly go on tumblr anymore because I kept getting posts about "RAPE IS WRONG! YOU'RE NOT A HUMAN BEING IF YOU LAUGH ABOUT IT" and all this other crap. I got annoyed with it and eventually just left.
I think your personal Tumblr experience is what you make it. I also quite dislike the "it's beautiful to be sad, " and other such mentalities in the site. I think a lot of it can be poisonous depending on how much sway you let the opinions of other bloggers have over you, which can be a lot for some people since they see Tumblr as a place where they belong & can be themselves. It's like with fandoms or trying to get into a certain group of friends; you become more willing to do things to fit in, to change yourself and let yourself be influenced much more easily. This coupled with just how much vitriol Tumblr users give to other people/things in general which, in some cases, have been completely innocent with a little research, really makes me not like the community of the site in general. With some of the browser extensions floating around (Tumblr Savior a biggie for me), I just block out all the posts about things that just tend to get me annoyed with the site and/or bother me, and it's pretty effective I find. I'd suggest to anyone to use a blacklist like that or just make sure that the blogs you're following are people you can I agree with usually. I just tend to stick to what I want to use my blog for -- to catalogue information, photosets, moments in my life and other such things so I can easily look back on them. Until I find a blogging platform that has the easy accessibility of Tumblr's tags and reblogging system, I just say eff the community of that site and just do my own thing. :v
To be honest, it is just Tumblr for God's sake. All sorts of content can be found on that website. So I'd say it is natural to find weird content such as that.
There isn't a website on the planet that will cause someone to self harm. A particular person might, a vast amount of true and real hate might do it, but the website isn't to blame. I've been through it all, and I can tell you first hand this isn't how it works at all. Yeah some people think that overly thin girls look good, or that scars are "beautiful" but that is their thought process, and who are you to tell them that their opinion is wrong. No offense man, but it's not a huge deal. My heart goes out to the people who are going through depression and other stuff like that. But I have the scars to prove what I've gone through, physical and emotional and I know for damn sure that it has nothing to do with the website itself.
Well said. I let certain things on the site get to me and wiped all my follows, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to delete my account. It felt like turning my back on something I was passionate about. Speaking as someone who's spent a lot of his life searching for greener pastures, if something bothers you and you have the will and ability to affect it—and if you think you can't, you have no idea how much difference one person can make—then don't just abandon it. Don't ask for an ideal world, work for it. These worldviews, however harmful they may be, carry the consequences with them by nature. The cons are inseparable from the pros. If pro-ana disgusts someone, they have lost a potential follower; and seeing as they are controversial, they will be criticized. Whether that criticism itself comes from a good place or not is one thing, but if it bothers you, speak out against it. Unfollow the blogs that support it. Don't deny yourself your own voice, or the tools given to you; they're the best and only way to affect change. I won't claim to understand every disorder just because I had one minor one, but with my little cocktail of anxiety/depression I often thought I'd be an unstable freak all my life. I thought my issues were part of who I was, and knowing that I felt that I'd always be undesireable, the "how not to do it" example... which occasionally drove me to romanticize my problems, or appreciate art that did so. I think it's a matter of people seeking comfort in the only place left to them: If you can't be happy, at least your misery can be beautiful. Small comfort, of course, and ultimately harmful, but in the life of someone who feels so small and so cursed, it can be the only reason to make it to tomorrow. I read an article about the mindset of a poor/homeless person that seemed to follow a similar train of thought. When you get below a certain point, where you know your happiness, wealth, livelihood, or whatever can't be sustained, you simply stop thinking about the long-term because there's just no sense in it. For all you know, it will always be like this, and you have to take what comforts come your way. Which is why people in those situations make otherwise stupid decisions, like marrying some scumbag and having too many kids, blowing all their money on gambling and drinking, etc.
