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byrocket rancher ( 447670 ) writes:
Hmmm. The way the automobile changed American culture after WWII gave teens and young adults the freedom to escape adult supervision and explore their identities away from prying eyes. I’m dating myself, but I think Bob Seger captured it perfectly in Night Moves—working on mysteries without any clues in the backseat at a drive-in, getting a taste of independence. I’m thinking that same kind of freedom is what Tumblr offers today for Gen Z. It’s a space where they can work on their own night moves outside the influencer-driven, algorithmic bubbles that dominate platforms like Instagram and TikTok. I don’t think the hormone-driven peer-group dynamics of youth have changed much since I was a teen—young people still need space to connect and forge their identities. Tumblr and platforms like it are just the new backseats at a drive-in, offering that same kind of freedom to explore.
Gen Z was raised on the tail end of a world before social media fully infiltrated every aspect of human culture, and is the first generation coming of age in a digital ecosystem where identity formation and peer-group relationships are shaped more by the data-driven interactions of their online presence than by real-world connections. Their socialization occurs largely in algorithmically mediated spaces—spaces where the visibility of content is filtered through corporate lenses rather than organic peer-to-peer engagement. Seger’s "mysteries without any clues" are now algorithmically analyzed, amplified, and partitioned into surveillance capitalism’s carefully curated, epistemically closed cash cows.
Tumblr’s appeal lies precisely in its resistance to these pressures, offering a refuge from algorithmic bubbles that prioritize profit over authenticity. But platforms that become too popular are never immune to the forces of apex capitalism. I’m fairly certain that Tumblr’s fate will mirror the commodification of earlier internet spaces. Gen Zers embracing Tumblr now will soon find themselves in just another (influencer-led) teenage wasteland. (Apologies to Pete, Roger, and the boys.)
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