Revisiting Tumblr Culture of the Early 2010s
Encouraging Self-Expression or Romanticizing Sadness?
TW: mentions depression, self-harm, drug abuse, and eating disorders
Having been born at the turn of the 21st century, there hasn’t been a time in my life when technology hasn’t been present. I had a portable DVD player on family road trips and flights. In elementary school, I had weekly computer lab classes. I got my first flip phone in sixth grade and my first iPhone a couple of years after that. I was an early, less bizarre version of an “iPad kid.”
Being born at the turn of the millennia also means that I was a young teenager during a time that is now being reflected upon online with fond nostalgia: the “Tumblr” days of the early 2010s. It was the dawn of edgy, self-described “aesthetics,” featuring blogs plastered with images of knee-high socks, Doc Martens boots, American Apparel skater skirts, and vinyl records from The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys. Fandom culture was flourishing, as fan blogs for John Green novels, One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, Doctor Who, and more abounded. Everyone was streaming “Boom Clap” by Charli XCX and memorizing the “It’s a Metaphor” monologue from The Fault in Our Stars. You just had to be there.
Teenagers at this time had a level of technological competency that was unparalleled. And many viewed the Internet as a safe haven, a place where they could express their thoughts freely, without fear of being reprimanded by an authority figure. No one telling you that you’re too inexperienced to understand complicated emotions or that the things you care about don’t matter. Teenagers could communicate with others enduring the common struggles of growing up, share self-made media, and flock to those who shared similar interests. Forming relationships and engaging in stimulating dialogue was as easy as tapping on an app.
Yet, an article about this online era would be remiss without mentioning the oversharing that characterized it. Specifically, the recurrent disclosures of mental illness. Social media was an overflowing fountain of emotion, with many comfortably using the safety of a screen as a buffer to divulge their deepest feelings. Discussions of depression, in particular, abounded, accompanied by photos that enhanced their gloomy tones. Among images of fishnets, chokers, and flannels tied around waists, were striking photos documenting evidence of self-destructive behavior. Pastel pills spilled out of canisters, cigarette burns, and images of self-harm were scattered across blogs alongside despondent screencaps from American Horror Story and Lana Del Rey music videos. All of which was cloaked in a black and white, grainy filter. In many ways, this moment of blatant, artistic expressions of sadness paralleled the young countercultural grunge era of the 1990s.
And as someone who was a teenage girl not too long ago, it’s unsurprising that much of this forlorn Tumblr content was produced by teenage girls.
Teenagers often get stereotyped as angsty and emotional, largely because of the hormonal imbalances that are co-occurring with changes to their bodies and minds. This stereotype is often grossly exaggerated and overlooks the legitimate cultural challenges of being a teen. It’s not surprising for teenage girls, in particular, to experience feelings of disembodiment as their bodies undergo puberty earlier than their male peers. Around teenagehood, and in conjunction with puberty, girls are also coming to uneasy terms with the challenges of living within a patriarchal culture. Other teenagers grapple with obstacles related to understanding their gender identity and sexuality, as they confront what it means to live in a culture that promotes cisheteronormativity.
While confronting these challenges and more, it’s easy to see why teenagers may feel upset at times and drawn to digital media that reflects those feelings. In my article about why teenage girls are drawn to the Twilight saga, I discuss this at greater lengths. For young girls, feelings of catharsis and validation can emerge when they witness another person who shares their identity experiencing the same feelings of sadness and distress unapologetically.
Tumblr blogs of the early 2010s provided outlets for teenagers to relate to one another and outwardly express their emotions freely. Nonetheless, in reflecting on this period years later, many online have been outspoken about how certain sects of Tumblr romanticized struggles relating to mental health, including depression, drug abuse, eating disorders, and self-harm, making these phenomena appear wrongly desirable. The simple re-blog feature of the site made it easy to get sucked into sharing artistic, grainy - and sometimes graphic - black and white photos with downcast text and imagery strewn across them. Many of these images had a dreamy, visceral film noir quality, depicting beautiful sad women in film and music that looked enticing on one’s blog. Around this time, Anne-Sophie Bine wrote about how the word “depression” was used in an alarmingly casual way - often used to describe more commonplace daily experiences of disappointment rather than the actual mental disorder.
Fast-forward to the 2020s, amid the challenges of a global health emergency, the mainstream pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Seeking a sense of control among international crises and uncertainty, the online presentation trend has transformed from outwardly expressing sadness to showcasing the most optimized version of yourself - becoming “That Girl.” Workout regimens, smoothie recipes, organizational tips, and more abound on TikTok and YouTube. In terms of popular digital personas, hating your life is “out” and trying to love it is “in.”
Yet, as I mentioned in “The Pitfalls of Being ‘That Girl,’” enforcing an extreme level of productivity and self-optimization can lead to a false sense of control and an unbalanced life when left unchecked. While it doesn’t seem as immediately harmful as the Tumblr trends of the 2010s, similar mental health issues can emerge if young girls size themselves up to the highly tailored, hyper-productive women caught in an endless loop on their social media algorithms.
Is there a place for social media to land between these two extremes? A place that allows for authentic conversations about mental health that are free from both the silos of dangerous romanticization and the unhelpfulness of toxic positivity?
I think there is. At least in small quantities and in small places.
Of course, the far-out nature of extreme content on either end of the spectrum is what contributes to its virality. And at the same time, at least in my own algorithmically tailored feeds, I am seeing conversations about mental health that are way more complex than anything that I saw in the 2010s. Therapists and influencers alike are sharing information about the complications of human life and the human brain, namely how it’s possible - and human - to hold many different emotions at once and still experience mental health disorders.
I should make it clear that I don’t think going on social media is by any means a cure to any mental health ailment, especially if one is engaging in closed-off communities that only promote one kind of toxic message. In my own experience, social media usage escalates such ailments, if anything. I see some glimmers of hope in the range of information being disseminated across my own feeds, which may at least reflect a more gradual and general shift in the public’s larger view on mental health.
People cannot entirely control the black box algorithms that are helping dictate what appears on their social media feeds. And it’s not entirely possible to control the state of our own mental health. What is perhaps a bit more in our control is how we speak about our emotions and mental health on and offline, by creating comfortable communities that foster healthy connections through shared experiences, offering reasonable assistance and support to loved ones in distress, and importantly viewing one another, and our precious minds, with greater complexity and wholeness. Unlike the popular Tumblr images of the 2010s, conversations about mental health do not have to be black and white.
Very observant to notice the two extremes within social media . I think having an expressive space is important as long as it does not become toxic, going down a rabbit hole. Self care is most important and one must realize if social media hinders or helps .