A post about tumblr I am not making on tumblr

[sqbr]

Does anyone else feel really uncomfortable making critical reblogs? If it's some meme with 20,000 notes I don't feel like my opinion makes much difference either way, but if I'm disagreeing with someone I follow, or agreeing with their take on some ongoing argument/criticism with like 20 notes, it's hard not to feel like I'm dogpiling and/or encouraging my followers to dogpile. Which I can live with if the thing being criticised is Just That Terrible, but not if it's a more every day sort of wrong, or not entirely without merit. Even if my response is good natured, there's no guarantee the reblogs following me won't go to a bad place, and that's not always something I feel comfortable setting in motion, especially if the person I'm responding to is a friend.

I have seen some really productive and valuable posts result from critical commentary on tumblr, I'm definitely not saying that should stop. Just that I find the dynamic there unhelpful. Tumblr encourages short posts and off the cuff responses, which really doesn't nurture nuanced discussion. Plus I'm not sure I want to be a thirty something heaping disdain on teenagers for poorly thought out opinions.

But what's the alternative, just let all the wrongness slide? I guess I could private message people, but that makes me Super Uncomfortable for other reasons (though if people ever want to pm me about problematic stuff I've said I try to be open to criticism) I totally understand why some people err more on the "point out problematic stuff" side than I do, especially if they lack my intense conflict anxiety.

And the reason I didn't post this to tumblr is because I wasn't in the mood for watching everyone complain about how other people should use Tumblr, and how it really hurt their feelings that one time someone reblogged them to point out they were being racist, rather than talking about how they use tumblr. Maybe the moral here is I should post more to dreamwidth (YES say my dreamwidth-but-not-tumblr using readers)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

YES I am one of them, because it's obviously possible to make sense of Tumblr (viz you) but I am not capable.

[sqbr]

I do understand the feeling, I find Facebook impossible and twitter no good for serious conversation, yet can communicate with a large subsection of my friends nowhere else.

[trouble]

YES. YES YOU SHOULD.

I quick Tumblr and am happier for it, and this is part of the reason why.

[sqbr]

I still mostly enjoy tumblr, the people I follow tend to post happy-making and not-too-problematic stuff, and several of my fandoms are way more popular there than on lj/dw (since I have the tastes of an 18 year old girl) It's been a useful escape while I've been working through some offline stuff, but the enforced shallowness does mean I never feel entirely at home.

[wendelah1]

I do feel uncomfortable but I do it anyway. Since I have seven followers, the chances of it having any impact at all is slight, but I can't let some things go.

I have intense conflict anxiety, too.

[sqbr]

I have 95 followers so on the one hand I can make more of a difference, but on the other hand the odds of things expanding into explosive drama are much higher :/