When I heard that Yahoo ponied up a cool $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr, I summed up my reaction with a Surprised Patrick Star gif. Apparently it wasn’t a hoax; after Kony 2012 most of us had become more circumspect with regard to what we read online. Nor was it an impulse buy, the corporate version of a super drunk housewife going nuts on Net-a-Porter after midnight. As media outlets talked about the cash transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of the year, it started to become real to me — and frighteningly so.
In the scheme of recent tech acquisitions, the Internet pioneer’s decision to buy the social content platform may not be as prestigious as Google’s purchase of YouTube or eBay’s PayPal deal, but it is a significant one nonetheless. “Yahoo is desperate to be cool again,†the BBC commented, and I agree. Two months ago, it spent $30 million on mobile newsreader Summly, created by 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio. Then there’s the reboot of Flickr, which has been dying on the vine since it became part of Yahoo in 2005.
According to the Financial Times, “keeping a Yahoo e-mail account is akin to driving a Buick.†Clearly, the company wants to show its competitors that it was refashioning itself to be young and relevant. At what price?
Obligatory nostalgia
A 20-year-old David Karp launched Tumblr in 2007 and being the early adopter that I am, I was embarrassed to be so uncharacteristically late to the party. I signed up for an account in May 2008 and posted for the first time that July, dovetailing nicely with my maiden Twitter message. The New York start-up only had 170,000 registered users then, a far cry from the 105 million unique blogs it hosts now. Relatively speaking, however, it looks like I may have been just on time.
Five years ago, the world was dripping in hipster irony. Barack Obama was a mere senator with his eyes on the presidency; Jokerizing one’s face, thanks to The Dark Knight, was the thing to do. Having previously maintained journals on Blurty — a space for bored American middle schoolers circa 2001 — and Blogger, I’ll never forget the thrill of stumbling upon Tumblr and discovering another way to enjoy and process pop culture: I finally found my home online.
I’ve been on Tumblr long enough to have witnessed a string of developments and changes. Along with the frequent server crashes I remember Muxtape, a crude version of SoundCloud; and Tumbltape, which turns your blog into a playlist. Long before selfies, there was GPOYW, Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Wednesday. The Tumblr population was so small at the time that it was possible for Aaron Thacker, who helped popularize the tag during the site’s earliest days, to acknowledge all the participants in a roll call. Of course, there, too, was the short-lived Tumblarity in 2009. Though I found it quite annoying, I have to admit that I enjoyed the Sharks Vs. Cats game the staff devised to promote it.
Safe place
I have stayed since, rarely missing a day, because Tumblr has become my safe space. A handful of my favorite bloggers have come and gone, but I’ve made some lasting connections with individuals who make me feel both normal and unique. I seem to express myself more spontaneously on Tumblr, more so than in real life, and I often forget that the world can see what I post. One of my first followers, the sister of Marco Arment, Tumblr Employee #1, articulated my sentiments: “This is a very real community for me. This is a place where I have found support, entertainment, healing and friendship.â€
“We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently,†states Marissa Meyer, Yahoo CEO and “Mommy of Tumblr,†following a tweet by David Karp. This is supposed to calm fears, but somehow her underlying defensiveness made me worry even more. After all, MySpace disappeared into the ether of ads and revenue streams after its 2005 acquisition by NewsCorp. The billion-dollar question with social media has always been how to monetize it.
That said, I realize that protesting through a bunch of snarky posts with thousands of notes isn’t going to change anything. My only wish is that Tumblr’s new owners live up to their pledge and keep the irreverent spirit together with the gifs, memes and in-jokes. Puppies to porn in seconds? F*ck yeah — I hope.
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