The Social Life: Express yourself on Tumblr

Tumblr. If you think that's a typo you're probably not a user of this easy-to-populate blog site.

In its own words: "Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be."

Big whoops, you say. I can do that on Facebook, you say. Why should I care?

If you're relatively young (and that's all in the mind of the beholder, isn't it?) you may like to know that Tumblr has the youngest overall demographic, with a bigger proportion of 18-24-year-olds favouring the site over rivals such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. It's where the cool kids are hanging out.

If you're a parent, you should care because Tumblr may be where your kids are escaping to in order to avoid you.

Pew Research says teens are using Facebook less because of "watchful parents, too-old adults and drama - nasty conversations that would never arise in real life".

One research interviewee, 15, liked Tumblr because she didn't have to present a specific or false image and "I don't have to interact with people I don't necessarily want to talk to".

Social media expert Deirdre Breakenridge talked to teens who said Tumblr was less of a place to connect and was more an expression of themselves. One said: "Facebook has a connection purpose, but Tumblr is about me."

And it's getting bigger. Tumblr has 116 million blogs, covering topics on anything under the sun (and beyond the sun too). More than 90 million posts are made each day.

Findthebest.com says browsing through the various tumblelogs is like sifting through the lost and found department of the entire internet: "It's a beautiful mix of everything and anything, from the shocking to the spectacular."

There's plenty of "spectacular", with blog after blog showcasing wonderful beaches, cityscapes, sunsets, lagoons, clouds and more than a few supermodels.

There's also plenty of "shocking", so if you're starting a blog it wouldn't be a bad idea to tick the box blocking NSFW (not safe for work) content.

The internet has many dark recesses and, unfortunately, Tumblr makes those recesses a lot more accessible.

Yahoo!'s recent US$1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) purchase of the site may lead to changes, but the big challenge (besides making money from a demographic with none) will be retaining, in an ever-evolving social media landscape, the cool factor Tumblr inherited from the long-since-cool Facebook.