ronbailey's tumblr

June 12, 2009

In regards to something that was making the rounds last night. I once posted something like this:

i don’t know about you but i’m sick of 80 pt, helvetica typed platitudes about living a fulfilling life spooging all over my dashboard.
“Hi. I make graphics telling people how to lead exciting, fulfilling lives and post them on the internet.”

“How…fulfilling.”

I recently started unfollowing anyone whose tumblr is filled with photographs (usually other people’s photographs) superimposed with pearls of wisdom, all designed to get us to feel…something. I find them manipulative and cheesy and really uninspiring.

I have no idea why these things annoy me so much. Maybe because sometimes I feel like I’m being lectured to, sometimes I feel like I’m being pandered to and sometimes I think, man this person really thinks this is the height of creativity and how does taking someone else’s words and putting them over someone else’s art get called creativity? It’s not.

It’s not even the words that bother me. It’s that people think adding the words to a photo will somehow make it profound. Profundity is not going to be found on tumblr, people. This is a place where people post pictures of poop.

I’m cranky today.

Someone make me a photo with some words, preferably in helvetica, imposed on it that says something like “stop being such an oppositional dick.”

something something opposing thumbs something something.

7:58am | URL: http://ronbailey.tumblr.com/post/122310181/inthefade-in-regards-to-something-that-was

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