internet

Tumblr is growing in popularity, and a lot of my friends online have gotten into it (at times replacing their blogs entirely) but frankly I find them overwhelming. It’s not that I don’t like them aesthetically, since the layout is very simple and organized, it’s just that it causes RSS overload. Let me explain:

Tumblr allows people to add multiple feeds that are aggregated onto your “tumblelog.” In this way, it’s almost like Jaiku, except that you get full photos and videos on the page instead of thumbnails like Jaiku shows you. Let’s say “Bob” uses Tumbler, and adds his Twitter feed, Flickr feed, blog posts, etc. The problem is that I already follow Bob’s tweets, and I like viewing my Flickr photos in one large RSS feed of all my contacts. Because of this, all of Bob’s blog posts get lost in this huge collection of feeds — the only way I can see them is by sifting through information that I’ve already viewed in other places. It gets to the point where I don’t continue checking, because there are so many updates to his feed that I can no longer keep up.

I can certainly see the attraction to a Tumblr blog, and I can also see why people would think they’re more convenient for everyone else. Maybe I just prefer to have a little more distinction when it comes to what kind of data I’m intaking, and when. Which way of following do you prefer?