Blogging Smart: A Look at Meggannn's Tumblr

 

A guest post by Jessica Knettle

Any of these look familiar to you? They’re a few of the biggest fandoms on the internet, things that appear on Meggannn’s tumblr quite often. Meggannn’s tumblr contains a plethora of stereotypical internet things. Fangirlish ravings about various characters from anime, photosets from a live action series, funny gifs responding to silly posts. My research suggests that blogs are always a work in progress, and they are constantly being shaped by the owner of the blog and other members of the community. That was the case as I observed Meggannn’s Tumblr as she posted “ask me…” things and showed asks, which are sort of like comments except the owner of the blog can decide whether they‘re seen or not and can be anonymous or show the asker‘s username, which is up to the asker.

Here's an ask with the user's name displayed

And here's an anonymous ask

One of the key elements on tumblr is the method of communication between the blog owner and the followers of the blogger. In Making Connections: Readings in Relational Communications by Kathleen M. Galvin and Pamela J. Cooper, they discuss the importance of communication in “classrooms and offices, at kitchen tables and on athletic fields,” (4) but many communication aspects can be applied to the online world. Galvin and Cooper state “effective communicators are those who are able to select the most appropriate…messages for specific other persons and who are able to interpret the intended message” (5). This is literally shown when members of the tumblr community know each other through mutual “follows” (the act of following someone entails all of their reblogs to show up on your dashboard) and possible communication outside of tumblr send anonymous asks to one another and try to get the person to guess which follower it is. Megan has done this on Minuiko’s and Viria’s tumblrs. The ask usually contains some sort of compliment and an obscure clue, making the blogger rely on what they know about the other person’s online mannerisms to guess who sent the ask.

Another idea Gavin and Cooper suggested is the process of communication being established. Gavin and Cooper say that “a relationship’s communication pattern begins at the first moment of contact” (5). In the case of Tumblr, the first contact is the act of following another blog. It’s simple enough, just typing a URL into a little box and pressing enter. But there are a lot of text posts that people including Megan reblog indicating that it’s a huge step to follow a blog that you’ve been “stalking” (periodically checking without actually following) for a long time, because you begin to admire the blog and start to idolize and possibly even mimic the blog. But once someone follows the blog, then the two bloggers have the opportunity to become good friends, a common occurrence as long as they have more than just fandoms in common

The idea of a blog being a work in progress came from Digital Fandom: New Media Studies by Paul Booth (2010). Although this seemed to be a rather simple notion, the more I thought about it, the more this idea made sense and had deeper meaning. It agrees with the way Meggannn‘s blog is set up, perhaps more than any of the others I’ve seen. She began reblogging mostly Starkidpotter gifs, Yu-Gi-Oh! fan fiction, and Harry Potter pictures, not putting her input into many of the posts.

One of many Starkidpotter gifs Megan has reblogged

Now she has over 4187 pages of posts, 10 posts per page, and she quite often puts her opinion somewhere in them, whether they’re in the tags or as an added comment. However, most of the posts she adds input to are not ones bound to spark controversy. When they do, it’s unintentional and she sometimes seems embarrassed by it in hindsight. She’s come a long way just within her own text posts and commentary. Since gathering a tumblr following, she often gets questions in her ask box, anonymous and public, and the questions are sometimes of a personal nature. She’s divulged where she goes to school, posted a small video thanking all the people that follow her for putting up with any inane drabble on her blog, she occasionally complains about scheduling/housing issues at her college. They allow her followers to understand her more while building her online persona.

Megan shows many intellectual characteristic on her tumblr. “Fans Behaving Badly: Anime Metafandom, Brutal Criticism, and the Intellectual Fan” (2010) by Kathryn Dunlap and Carissa Wolf discusses the ideas proposed by Matt Hills, including the idea of a fan-as-intellectual (270).  Megan posts social commentary that includes racism, sexism, politics, and women’s rights, and approaches the topics with care. In her FAQ there is a section titled “Where can I find your fics or essays/analysis/articles?” (meggannn.tumblr.com). It includes all of her intellectual musings concerning Fullmetal Alchemist, an anime that is surprisingly intellectually oriented in the first place, and Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, American takes on anime but address a lot of controversial topics that most animated shows geared toward a younger audience don’t dare broach. Therefore she is embracing the persona of an intellectual, though some people only see it as her talking about stuff. The ones that acknowledge the fact that she is blogging intellectually submit asks and reblog her stuff with analytic comments added on, whether the additions are positive or negative depend on the person’s opinion. She also has fandom commentary of other people on tumblr, which is telling because it means she values the input of other members of the community, not relying wholly on her own ideas. That is also an area that allows her blog to grow, and for her to grow as an individual.

Megan’s reaction to a derogatory post about religion also lends to her persona of an intellectual, though in a roundabout way. She made a short text post on the subject, and people began posting asks, becoming increasingly aggressive, often anonymous. On tumblr, people use tags to organize their posts. They are able to search through everything tagged the same, and can be more easily found. The tags were very atypical, things like “ugh I’m sorry I didn’t mean to rant in the tags…” and “but hoooly crap now people are sending me messages with ‘religion is stupid anyway’ (meggannn.tumblr.com). There were no commonly used tags in it, so it is probably impossible for anyone but her to find it without going through every page of posts. She won’t be using those tags for any other posts, meaning she just used them to convey her point. The tags sounded aggressive, showing she has strong feelings about the subject. In the tags some of what I interpret as her own faith shows when she says religion is not rational, that it is “beyond reason.” She then ends her tag rant with “lol okay,” which is a huge, unprofessional sounding switch from her previous tags that were not very professional either, but sounded less informal and had a point. The purpose may have been her trying to lighten the mood, maybe it was a way to show the pointlessness of the issue, or maybe she didn’t know how to end the post without offending more people (meggannn.tumblr.com).

The post discussed above and below

She questioned the approach of the people asking her questions anonymously and aggressively, according to her proving her point about “asshole atheists” (meggannn.tumblr.com). Her point was somewhat in the actual post, although it is short. Her issue was not with people giving their opinions on her opinion, it was them doing it anonymously. She said people were debating “controversy for the sake of controversy,” (meggannn.tumblr.com) just stirring up trouble without having the courage to show who they were. That distressed her more than anything. While the post and the tags were erratic and a large digression from her usual text posts, she stated her opinions effectively in the context of her argument, proving that her approach was intellectual and appropriate for the situation at hand.

Megan is an entertaining blogger, perhaps even a typical one, but her blog has grown and matured, probably just as she has. Being constant works in progress, blogs are unpredictable. They are able to inspire, create controversy, ultimately making people laugh (I know I do rather often). And although there is the occasional animosity sparked because of a remark gone wrong, the social commentary conversations that are begun are often insightful. Her blog title is Could Be Dangerous for a reason. A blog being thought of as a work in progress is indicative of the human life, always building, always growing, and always improving.

Works Cited
Booth, Paul. Digital Fandom: New Media Studies. New York, New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2010. 43-46. Print.
Dunlap, Kathryn, and Carissa Wolf. “Fans Behaving Badly: Anime Metafandom, Brutal Criticism, And The Intellectual Fan.” Mechademia 5.(2010): 267-283. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Sept. 2012.
Galvin, Kaathleen M., Pamela J. Cooper. Making Connections: Readings in Relational Communication. Los Angeles, California: Roxbury Publishing Company, 2006. 4-5. Print.
Could be dangerous. (26 Sept. 2012). Retrieved from meggannn.tumblr.com.