Tumblr: Showing, Telling, Watching

Great article by my buddy and fellow Brooklynite Josh Sternberg on the integration of Tumblr in to the consumption and distribution habits of main-stream media ecosystems.

/via @creepysleepy:

Commentary from Creepy Sleepy’s @JoshSternberg:

For 50+ years, if someone were to mention The Big Three Networks, one would automatically know the conversation was about ABC, NBC and CBS. Over the past several years, a new Big Three Networks has emerged, only now it’s the social networks of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (and while the folks at MySpace believe they’re in this cadre, who really uses MySpace anymore except for the next promising local band?).

But with the introduction of Tumblr into the online denizen’s conscious (heck, even the New York Times has written about the microblogging service twice in the past 90 days), this relatively new platform can now insert itself the conversation (similar to Fox becoming a member of the Big Three, except in name) knowing there are several others who want to join the party.

In fact, we can take this whole TV analogy even further and say while online, the Big Three plus Tumblr are the driving forces of social media, the corresponding “cable outlets” of Posterous,Formspring – and to a certain extent YouTube and Flickr – of online media are giving validity to the general precept of the Web: share and share alike. Numbers don’t lie – people are flocking to short-form content-producing sites where they can put their lives on display.

Tumblr has been around since 2007, but only within the last year or so has it gained traction within the social sphere, as its blogging platform creates the opportunity to be a social network (indeed, in August, Anthony DeRosa wrote a column for Mediaite about Tumblr entering the “Holy Trinity of Social Media”). I started exploring and experimenting on the site at the outset of summer and find myself constantly amazed at how people use the platform.

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Thanks.