Tumblr established itself as a majorly teen environment, controversy aside: it used to feature explicit porn, which they tried to moderate showing gifs instead of videos; but eventually a user would purposefully rip some Pornhub content and upload it there, or even an unreleased scene from the industry websites to be seen as a sort of exclusive content for Tumblr, and with that, get a massive following.

The 2018 change of direction, something I’ve been personally involved with, came out of reports concerning the safety of users. To the adults in the room, this meant that, for example, nobody should have to deal with massive, targeted stalking. It also meant basic things: respect for women, basically, which contrasted with examples of posts saying “You’re made to please. You’re only good if you submit. You’re just fuck meat. Your holes are supposed to be ready for your master’s use”. In case nobody knew, that’s what the 2010s were about.

Then came the users who thought gifs were not enough, and Snapchat culture invaded every American home, exporting that to other places in the world. The outcomes, which in the end resulted in the creation of OnlyFans, are not debated by anyone — of course, because journalism is made by moralists, or rather, people who pay them are precisely that.

After the boom of livestreaming, which was experimented on big YouTube entertainment venues, then small to medium-sized businesses, events networks and the like, everyone seemed to ignore that the actual livestream that people cared about was the type where people got naked. And so we have examples, as mentioned previously by this blog, of NYT articles on the rise of camming businesses during the pandemic. It turns out people were also live on Instagram all the time, and then came TikTok.

But there’s a huge distance between TikTok and Chaturbate, for example. Go on Omegle, and you’ll see how flirting is a skill that none of those teens has mastered, because the media only exposes the drama, one could argue. If they have to learn from Will Smith’s “Hitch” and Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell’s “Crazy Stupid, Love“, some of that stuff would be outdated. But we have new shows coming up, for example “Ginny and Georgia“, which depicts the nervousness of sending sexy pics and finding out your mom has dildos in her drawer, along with the tensions of school, divorce, secrets and jumping from one social circle to another.

While Ginny and Georgia shows online conversation on the scenes, it’s rare to capture the tension and be real about it. One of the best attempts, speaking of stalking, was Alyssa Milano’s “Brazen“, which talks about a girl who’s a cam model and suffers with threats to her life. It’s an extremely complicated issue, but it took too long to even be addressed, and it’s the only example we have, I believe. In real life, Instagram is now showing ads saying that, here in Brazil at least, “it’s in your hands to slay on Instagram”.

So we don’t have good experiences with sex online. We know there could be a backlash, but we think that’s ridiculous. We want to have good experiences, but we’d probably avoid the sex talk. We want to chill. We wanna be open, and meet cool people. The solution we found, in the world of broadcasts (which has nothing to do with Twitch, where they basically comment “funny” videos and have an excess of information on the screen, with too many users commenting at the same time and most people wanting to game), is Tumblr Live.

Tumblr Live, at first, could be seen as a safe haven for the 420 friendliness. It’s not a default setting. In fact, people are struggling to see what is default on Tumblr. The drawing scene? Motivationals? Not like Threads — the place for dogs. Maybe a picture of a woman’s curves; maybe a poem full of passion. Maybe something funny, or cute. Tumblr can be many things, and it’s used in many languages. But yes, people smoke live.

What I see is a place where people treat others with kindness, and don’t even have the trouble to dismiss trolls, because moderation is in place. But they seem to find a way in. And people are very defensive. There are moderators chosen by the user, and what’s more, there’s monetization, as it was reported at the time of its release by the PC Mag. Because some users have never deleted their accounts and they’re over 10 years old, we get it that some users have a reputation to preserve — a similar argument is being made about Twitter/X; but it’s not like they want to get rich.

Tumblr Live is a place where you can find real people who want a place to chill and to vent, or simply to do nothing, and be approached by someone who’s gonna be a nice surprise for them. I’m not saying it’s a place for needy people, but considering the history of the website, it might allude to that. With that said, I’ve been using it to make new friends, and so far the experience has been good, although time zones are still an issue that online relationships make complicated, and being followed back by someone who’s not a robot takes honesty and decency in your approach. I say give it a try. You don’t need to bring a joint.