Tumblr hosts a wide variety of people of different nationalities and
cultures, so it’s no wonder that it has become a platform for many diasporas to
connect on. But what is a diaspora?
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In my own terms, a diaspora refers to a group of people of the same
culture, religion or nationality who are forced migrate to form their own
community. This can be due to war or territorial disputes (Kuttainen, 2015). In
Emmanuel Ma Mung’s (2005) article ‘Diaspora, Spatiality, Identities’ he
describes diasporic communities as having a shared origin or sense of
belonging, having communities in disconnected spaces linked together by
exchanges, and having contact with the country of origin (p. 35-6). It’s difficult
to apply the concept of diasporas to social networking sites as a diaspora
generally refers to people from the same country, whereas the internet consists
of people from all around the world. However, the Rastafari community is an
excellent modern example of pop culture connecting people in a diaspora as they
find a sense of unity through reggae music (Kuttainen, 2015). And where is pop
culture seen the most? Social networking sites, particularly Tumblr. Tumblr is renowned
for it’s wonderful variety of cultures, so there are bound to be many diasporas
which connect via the website. However, I’d like to look specifically at a
community which I myself am a part of (so as not to offend any cultures to
which I do not belong): the LGBT diaspora. Now, I may be pushing the boundaries
by calling the LGBT community a diaspora as the members generally do not come
from the same country. However I believe many of the members were forced to
migrate to Tumblr (which has a prominent LGBT community) from other websites due
to lack of acceptance or abuse. The members of the diaspora find connection to
other LGBT people through text posts and artwork, which the users can reblog to
say “I am similar to the person who created this blog post”. One of my
favourite displays in the LGBT community is the Pride Dragon collection,
created by Kaenith, which are detailed illustrations of dragons in the colours
of the pride flags of all sexualities and genders. They allow users to reblog
the dragon which they belong to, thus displaying their pride in being part of
the LGBT community and linking themselves to the other people in the diaspora.
Reference List
Kuttainen, V. (2015) BA1002: Our space: Networks,
narratives and the making of place,
Lecture 7: People Networks. [Powerpoint
Slides]. Retrieved from
http://www.learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Ma Mung, E. (2005) Diaspora, spatiality, identities. In W.
Bosswick, & C. Husband. (Eds),
Comparative European research in migration, diversity and identities (pp. 33-48). Spain:
Univeristy of Deusto.
I completely agree, the gay community tended to find a place in the Tumblr community. The fact there are many blogs just for gay community it allows them to easily disperse among the many blogs. The ability for a blog to share certain materials means that certain materials get dispersed quite quickly and merge with other blogs. Like a queer blog who likes anime will have a queer anime blog making another community. That blog would be followed by both anime fans or gay fans and they would disperse at random making more sporadic communities. All of these unify fans into one big community which without tumblr wouldn't be together. It is difficult to relate diaspora to social networks but I think you hit it on the ball as typically the queer community is vilified in most sites, Tumblrs naturally deserve range and ability to follow only what you intend to make it a safe place for these dispersed people.
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