So Yahoo Bought Tumblr, Do You Care?

So the internet is buzzing about Yahoo's acquisition of tumblr. I use tumblr sometimes more than others, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how it alters the way I watch TV and think about it, etc. (basically I'm going to use this news as a chance to talk about tumblr) (Please note: I use tumblr and Tumblr both in this post because I couldn't make up my mind)

For example, when I first started using Tumblr, I intended it to be a place where I put all my random thoughts (lol this blog pretty much takes them now), quotes from books I liked, etc. But then it sort of got taken over by fandom, and I realized it was a fun place to see what other people thought about the TV shows I watch and there were tons of pretty gifs like SECONDS after a show ended and fan art and it was all kind of exciting. So then I bored all of my bookish followers to tears by reblogging endless TV stuff.

Anyway, I've started finding it less fun. For one thing, all these articles mention one of the bigger problems which is that there are 900 posts per second on Tumblr. And a loooot of them are not that great. A little while go I cut back majorly on who I follow which has helped a lot. It's hard to see the posts of the people you really care about when some people are posting their maximum of 200 times a day. Additionally, you might be friends with someone who loves something you're not too fond of and they end up reblogging it a lot...and there are all these you know reasons you can't unfollow them (not unlike Twitter) so you end up having to use plug-ins to not see all that stuff. Tumblr isn't usable without tumblr savior. Or Missing E, really, but unfortunately that hasn't worked for awhile every since Tumblr did a redesign. So hey, if Yahoo comes in and fixes this stuff I'd be grateful! The problem, also, is that Tumblr has no real commenting system. People will reblog stuff and put all their thoughts and feelings (I refuse to say feels okay) in the tags. And if you want to communicate or respond you basically have to reblog all their stuff (gifset + tags) and add your own thoughts. (You can use the ask function but it's a bit intimidating and also keeps the conversation private). So basically these are all the reasons I find tumblr to be a messy, unwelcoming platform for interaction. Surprisingly enough people do seem to find communities on there and make friends and that's great, I'm happy for them, it just hasn't really happened for me!

ANYWAY, all that aside, what's been bothering me lately is how using tumblr (and I do a lot of tedious boring work on the computer and sneak on tumblr/twitter for a mental break) alters the way I think about TV. Like...I can't really watch TV anymore without thinking of the resulting gifsets that will be made of certain scenes. Or worse, how Tumblr fans will react to developments. I think I might actually enjoy Elementary more as a show if I didn't feel it was overly praised for what it gets right from a representation stand point while the actual mysteries/cases leave SO MUCH to be desired. Even the finale of Elementary, which I loved for the Sherlock/Joan moments still didn't ~arrive for me from the standpoint of creating a compelling case. I'll keep watching because you know, Sherlock named a bee after Joan (and my other favorite moment tbh was when he was trying to manipulate her by saying he was disappointed in her, such a great true character moment) but I will also probably always wish it was something just a little bit more than it is. Even so, I remember when I thought Moriarity was going to be black, that I was actually wondering how people were going to react to that if they'd like it or hate etc, so much it pulled me out from just really watching and that annoyed me.

And also there's the problem of spoilers, Twitter is bad, Tumblr is impossible. I've realized that if I get spoiled for something I feel less inclined to watch it. Which, you know, may be a good thing. But being spoiled for stuff also changes the way you watch.

I don't know maybe this was one big post to convince myself to give up tumblr, which wouldn't be too hard to do at this point. I wish I could delete my account in some ways but then I couldn't comment on the few posts that allow comments you all post! Also, I'd probably regret it and I still feel the necessity to claim as much myfriendamy internet space as I can.

But if Yahoo comes in and changes things up, I don't necessarily see it as an awful thing because I don't love Tumblr the way it is to begin with.

How about you guys? Do you use tumblr? Are you worried about the Yahoo acquisition? Do you think sites like Tumblr, Twitter, etc. change the way you watch TV?