Tumblr is a seemingly innocuous blogging site that, according to a 2013 Yahoo report, boasts 300 million unique monthly users. It allows users to post pictures, quotes, and text posts. Tumblr, like other online blogging platforms, allows users to maintain their anonymity and post whatever they choose to post. This anonymity has led to an increase in blogs dedicated to the glorification of self-harm.
These self-harm blogs are focused on pain and depression. Tumblr users post pictures of them hurting themselves and channel their depression to relieve some of their pain. In the realm of self-harm, there are blogs that are devoted to “thinspiration,” or inspiration to be thin. These thinspiration blogs, often nicknamed “thinspo blogs,” are pro-anorexia.
For example, a self-proclaimed thinspo Tumblr called “diefordiet” posted a picture of a quote. The quote says, “You will be thin. You will be happy. You will wear bikinis. You will be the skinny one. You will have that gap. You will have that flat stomach … You will eat less. You will exercise more. You will do what it takes. You will keep going.” Quotes like these are not uncommon on thinspo blogs. These blogs post pictures of extremely thin, sometimes skeletal-looking girls.
According to Tumblr Community Guidelines, Tumblr is “… a global platform for creativity and self-expression,” that also “draw[s] lines around a few narrowly defined but deeply important categories of content and behavior that jeopardize our users, threaten our infrastructure, and damage our community.”
The Community Guidelines go on to state that Tumblr is not for the promotion or glorification of self-harm. It says, “Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm … We aim for Tumblr to be a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and we will remove only those posts or blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.”
“I think that it’s not a good decision to post triggering pictures online because you never know who’s going to look at it, and you never know how that person is going to feel. Your picture of your self-harming affects someone else,” says sophomore Anahita Ghajarrahimi.
There is a somewhat paradoxical self-harm environment on Tumblr. “People on Tumblr are like, ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ but at the same time it’s kind of glamorized. People do [hurt themselves] and they brag about it. It’s not something you should brag about,” says freshman Ty Gallegos.
Each individual’s Tumblr experience depends on what blogs they follow. Tumblr blogs are diverse and represent people from all over with differing views. “I don’t see hate that often, but that’s probably because the type of environment I blog in is something that avoids stuff like that,” says freshman Sophie Imbler.
“My friends have been bullied. People have tried to bully me but it doesn’t work,” says Imbler. “If people have opinions that a lot of people don’t agree with, they tend to get a lot of death threats and ‘You’re not worth existing’ … If someone has a controversial social opinion on things like gay rights or weight issues, they tend to get hate over those too.”
“Usually negative bully comments are shot down. But I definitely have seen instances of people being really mean to other people on Tumblr, like really terrible things,” says junior Catherine O’Brien.
Despite the possibility of stumbling into the negative self-harm world of Tumblr, many artists continue to use it for its sharing purposes. “You can share pictures that you took. I have a camera so I like taking pictures that look kinda artsy. I share them online, and Tumblr gives me the opportunity to do so,” says sophomore Savannah Zvarik, “It sounds really boring, but once you get a Tumblr, it’s pretty addictive, and you get to interact with people all over the world.”
“There are going to be people who are going to try to offend you for the sake of offending you, just to make you mad. There are just mean people on the internet. The internet is not a nice place,” concludes junior Quinn Manely.
