As I begin to sift through the research on Tumblr that I have gathered, I realize that many in my circle of both academic and non-academic friends might have a reaction similar to the one that opens “The Ever-Mutating Life of Tumblr Dot Com”:
To be an active Tumblr user in the year 2020 is a curious thing. If you’re able to curate a circle of other active users to follow and engage with, the platform is as vibrant as ever, with hundreds of thousands of blogs churning out writing and memes and art at a rapid clip.
But mentioning the site—or even a mere glimpse of the app on your phone—is enough to bring out cries of shock, disbelief, and condescending nostalgia.
“Wow, I had no idea Tumblr still existed.”
“Oh my God, you still go on Tumblr?”
“Haha, oh man, I remember Tumblr.”
Yep, I think we all know Kylie hasn’t Tumblr-ed since 2015; however, Allegra Rosenberg’s piece from February 2020 highlights a few of the reasons the platform differs from others and remains a “vibrant” site for fan expression, emphasis mine:
All social networks more or less demand “authenticity” in order to establish parasocial relationships between followers and followed, and Tumblr is not necessarily an exception. But Tumblr’s focus on enthusiasm as the fulcrum point of its demanded performance of authenticity sets it apart from the aesthetic focus of Instagram and the verbal focus of Twitter.
Tumblr isn’t a monolith, and its homegrown cringe culture has propagated and mutated in parallel with the increasingly irony-poisoned atmosphere of the internet at large. So for some long-time users like Bec, those who gradually moved away from fandom spaces but remained on Tumblr, it might come as a pleasant surprise that the site certainly still remains a safe haven for the types of full-throttle fannish expression that characterized its early days.
The creativity of Tumblr visible from second-hand glimpses on other platforms is only the tip of an iceberg that encompasses enormous amounts of perpetual creative energy, generated by the affordances of the platform’s much-loved functions, traditions, and communities.
My previous post noted how I have narrowed my sabbatical’s focus onto fan fiction shared on Tumblr, specifically compositions that have been inspired (generated? facilitated?) by Anonymous Asks. As the world approaches the second month of self-isolation and social distancing, though, I have been compelled to consider how things may be changing in the fic community because of COVID-19.
AO3 is seeing a dramatic increase in traffic due to current events.
We're taking immediate measures to make sure the Archive stays online, but there will be changes to logged out users' experience and to the way hits are counted. Details: https://t.co/NcVOPedxms
— AO3 Status (@AO3_Status) March 31, 2020
We're taking immediate measures to make sure the Archive stays online, but there will be changes to logged out users' experience and to the way hits are counted. Details: Late-March headlines stated, “How fanfic writers are reacting to coronavirus: Fanfiction is basically the perfect hobby for quarantine season,” and AO3 described “weekly page views increasing from 262 million to 298 million in just two weeks and the expectation for that trend to continue.”
If you like fanfiction, romance tropes, r/relationships, the reddit husbands, or just explorations into unexpected coronavirus trends, you might like my piece on the quarantine romance trope! it's, dare i say it, cheerful. https://t.co/BJH07U5XPt
— Aja Romano (@ajaromano) March 26, 2020
The Fansplaining podcast has released an episode on being “trapped together” part of their “Tropefest” series…
…but I’m thrilled to say they also collected survey data on “how we consume fiction in times of crisis and in the time of COVID-19.”
Were you curious about the detailed results of our Fiction In Times of Crisis mini-survey? Thanks to the fabulous @regretsonmain, you can now explore them in a gorgeous visualization! https://t.co/coRX8zIEhy pic.twitter.com/3MP8JeIXNd
— Fansplaining (@fansplaining) March 20, 2020
You can see the full set of survey data [collected over a few days in mid-March] at https://public.tableau.com/profile/fansplaining#!/vizhome/fiction-survey-fsp/Fansplaining, but I plan to reach out to the hosts via Twitter. I’m curious if they have plans to survey again to consider the toll the pandemic might be taking since the responses below don’t (yet) indicate any issues with focusing on creating/consuming fiction.
That type of questioning is totally me putting my trauma scholar cap on, but with all the talk of COVID-19 induced anxiety, especially without an end to social distancing in sight, I wonder if writers have felt the pressure to be more productive than usual? Might an increased readership lead to a resistance to the obvious turn those aforementioned tropes as well as an increase in entitled reader interactions?
I hope to find out more in the coming weeks of reading, listening to their full episode on the topic, and researching further. Until then, stay safe and at home!
