Читать книгу Tumblr - Tama Leaver, Crystal Abidin - Страница 17

The way tumblr is set up – the likes and reblogs – provides the framework for constant feedback and support. It’s easy to feel like I’ve been heard, appreciated, understood. We are connected with very intimate parts of ourselves and it makes it easier to see people’s humanity and to be compassionate toward them. I know how hard it is to be so open and I appreciate that others do the same. I find myself responding in ways through tumblr that just wouldn’t be socially acceptable in real life, and others do the same

(Katie: personal interview by authors, 2012)

The way tumblr is set up feels to me like it replicates a couple of significant modes of offline affiliation – the ability to “like” and “reblog” as well as comment feel to me like an analogue of some of the mirroring that happens between people who are working at attuning with one another in person. So, I would say it’s just been a matter of feeling out shared likes and dislikes, and developing a sense that we share enough to have that kind of identification with one another. Or shared community identity, at any rate.

(Olly: personal interview by authors, 2012)

This chapter is about tumblr as a built space. We explore it as a platform that is wrought from computer code and design choices, owned and managed by corporate entities that have particular goals and sets specific rules for users. To do this, we analyze tumblr’s features and functions first, and then discuss tumblr’s platform governance by describing its most pertinent rules and how they are enforced. This chapter is written to be read alongside Chapter 2, where we continue to analyze how people imagine what they can do on tumblr and how they actually use it.