Tumblr: Mixed Media Blog Format That’s Short & Sweet

Language arts teachers must be thrilled! Younger kids are blogging in brief little snippets, using social media training wheels like imbee, and writing to express themselves. Hopefully they’re also getting web wise in forums like Blog Safety. Hmn?

Now, Tumblr, a month-old mixed media microblogging service might kick it up a notch even higher if it catches on in kid culture. (50,000+ users already)

Tumblr is a snap to set up. Plop in an email/password, give it a name and whammo, insta-blog. It’s so easy any newbie can do it. (mom, this might be the one for you!)

It integrates web content pulled into place with a simple click, using the analogy, “if blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.”

Self-expression among kids could skyrocket, pulling in quotes, websites, photos, videos, posts, IM, and “bookmarklets” via tumblelog. (the name’s so cute I want to pinch its cheeks)

Kids could actually open conversations to share what’s on their minds without the daunting task of creating all original blog content.

Here’s a quick show-and-tell from The Bamboo Project blog, whose inspiring tagline reads, “educate, advocate, innovate, collaborate.” They have a great demo of how their org is using Tumblr. (While you’re there, check out the TEDTalks video, cyberbullying piece about the Kathy Sierra headline news & StopCyberBullying links–great stuff!)

Tumblr tumbled into my e-mail from Bamboo Project long before TrendCentral’s write-up but as I always say on any launch, “youth” are the first to know…Check these 3/5 posts from Emily Chang’s incredible e-hub, and Heyblog.)

I’m definitely adding Tumblr to our techno tool chest, as it’s a perfect short spot solution for verbose research junkies like me that need a place to offload relevant resources about media, shaping youth without writing full blown articles.

Besides, I’ve been looking for a way to corral my “mini-brain dumps” of random percolations that are pinging around my cerebral cortex like popcorn.

Project.ioni.st tumblelog gives me a good feel for how youth will integrate this media universally…

Granted, some kids already blog full length stories about their passions (e.g. Girls Horse Club) and some kids write “just for fun” which never ceases to amaze me, since my daughter brings a whole new meaning to minimum word count.

“C’mon, mom, it says 500 words, I did 501, where’s the problem?”

Ahem. Point being?

This could even make writer-phobic kids identify with blogging and encourage the written word.

I have to add that as a name generation specialist, I also agree with Andrew’s editorial comment about the ‘dropped e’ in Tumblr…But in fairness, it’s slim-pickins’ in cyberdomains with normal spellings these days, so coinages are key, even when you’re NOT seeking an evercool name for internet brand buzz.

Besides, I think it fits the media.

If you’d like to stay updated with new Tumblr add-ons, their official blog lives at WordPress. I know, sounds ironic at first, being a ‘blog service’ but it really only validates the notion that these guys prefer simplicity.

Einstein’s maxim holds true, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Rather than reinvent the wheel, Tumblr melds a turnkey approach with sophisticated web power and capability.

Voila…the KISS concept, redux.