does it feel weird or nice to be a tumblr microcelebrity? how do you feel about the way people talk to you online? i am curious, especially since unlike many other big tumblr accounts, it seems like you tripped into this rather than Posting For Notes, you know? anyway, hope your current research is going swell. frogs 👍
That is a very kind way to ask this question. Thanks, anon.
I would say it is usually nice; it is a joy for any scientist inclined towards science communication to have an enthusiastic and supportive audience/community. And I am glad to have come by it mostly honestly, without having to do much that I would consider pandering or over-hyped or anything. I just did a silly thing one day and it went viral—through almost no contribution of my own—and now I am somehow one of the most popular individuals on the site apparently. I must say, when I mention that I have something of a following on Tumblr to people in meatspace, the most popular response is 'oh tumblr is still a thing?' — which I honestly think is great.
As for tripping into it… well, I think I have wanted to be famous since I was a little kid. When I started to do scicomm and research blogging here on tumblr, I desperately wanted to grow my audience, to reach as many people as possible. I also wanted things to go viral, which is part of the reason I have always interspersed the serious with the silly—the former strengthens the audience, while the latter grows it. So, I didn't really trip into it so much as trying desperately to catch a break for about nine years, before finally by coincidence a nothing of a comment turned into the most popular thing I have ever done on the internet.
Also just turns out tumblrinas are pretty much freaks for frogs so *finger guns*
I have had some close encounters with fame and virality over the course of my life—both for myself, and others who I was close to—and these have had a significant mollifying effect on this desire, but there is a latent desire for attention on social media, certainly. I really admire and listen closely to the experiences of Hank and especially John Green in terms of a relationship with fame. It is intoxicating, but dangerous. It is easy to dehumanise and be dehumanised by fame. It is easy to lose the joy and one's moral compass in the thrill of it. It is intoxicating but toxic.
Tumblr 'microcelebrity' as you so elegantly put it is maybe a little different, but… not that different. If a post starts doing Numbers™, I can't stop refreshing the feed to see the tags and comments as people add them. When videos I made recently about the new frog species went a little viral on Instagram and Facebook, I was reminded again how simultaneously exhilarating and sickening the feeling can be. And that the point of most of the social internet now—the way the algorithms are set up—is to create discourse, for better and especially for worse. Most of the feedback on Instagram at least has been decidedly provocative or angry, but that is what the algorithms are *built* to do, because it drives engagement and keeps people on them. Spending time. Because time is money, and the companies behind the apps are the ones really profiting from it all.
This is not something I experience here on tumblr. The discourse is usually great, and when it's not, nobody is profiting from me spending time on here arguing. It's not incentivised by the algorithm, it's just part of discourse. I think this is how the internet should be, and I frankly think that the way it has been set up to incentivise divisiveness over much of the rest of the internet is evil, if anything can be said to be evil. We create here, we build on each other's works, we inspire and discuss and share. At least, that has been my experience. And I hope it is yours, too.
Also the research IS going well, thanks! There's a LOT of it, too. I have six or seven more people joining my lab between now and the end of the year, which is mad. But we are doing really cool work on so many different things at once, and I really look forward to sharing more of it here and across the internet!
