It Can't Matter Much

when did tumblr collectively decide not to use punctuation like when did this happen why is this a thing

it just looks so smooth I mean look at this sentence flow like a jungle river

ACTUALLY

This is really exciting, linguistically speaking.

Because it’s not true that Tumblr never uses punctuation. But it is true that lack of punctuation has become, itself, a form of punctuation. On Tumblr the lack of punctuation in multisentence-long posts creates the function of rhetorical speech, or speech that is not intended to have an answer, usually in the form of a question. Consider the following two potential posts. Each individual line should be taken as a post:

ugh is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use like god put that back we have to pay for that stuff

Ugh. Is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use? Like god, put that back. We have to pay for that stuff.

In your head, those two potential posts sound totally different. In the first one I’m ranting about work, and this requires no answer. The second may actually engage you to give an answer about hoarding sauce packets. And if you answer the first post, you will likely do so in the same style. 

Here’s what makes this exciting: the English language has no actual punctuation for rhetorical speech–that is, there are no special marks that specifically indicate “this speech is in the abstract, and requires no answer.” Not only that, it never has. The first written record of English (actually proto-English, predating even Old English) dates to the 400s CE, so we’re talking about 1600 years of having absolutely no marker whatsoever for rhetorical speech.

A group of teens and young adults on a blogging website literally reshaped a deficit a millennium and a half old in our language to fit their language needs. More! This group has agreed on a more or less universal standard for these new rules, which fits the definition of “language.” Which is to say Tumblr English is its own actual, real, separate dialect of the English language, and because it is spoken by people worldwide who have introduced concepts from their own languages into it, it may qualify as a written form of pidgin. 

Tumblr English should literally be treated as its own language, because it does not follow the rules of any form of formal written English, and yet it does have its own consistent internal rules. If you don’t think that’s cool as fuck then I don’t even know what to tell you.

i love this post

This is super cool! Also idk if this has any relevance whatsoever but if you wanna have an argument inside one tag you cannot have commas in it so that’s a real existing constraint that has forced tumblrites to construct commaless sentences and perhaps this has helped in adopting the custom into posts as well ok I have no idea if this is what’s happened just I think it’s a reasonable assumption there might be a connection

^this.

The tags are absolutely a factor. You want someone to take a breath in the middle of a sentence, you start a new tag. You want to have, as seen here, this removable piece between commas (does it have a name?) - you have 5 tags in this sentence alone. And sometimes you just

pause in the middle of a sentence…

and let your voice

trail away

look at all you precious brilliant nerds nerding about language you make me so fucking happy omg

language is this constantly evolving thing tbh, it doesn’t remain the same unless it’s dead and the people who used it gone so seeing the evolution of the language used on tumblr is literally so fucking amazing i want to cry with joy at it

because we also add in words from other languages, or make entirely new words up as additional terms to denote something (see ‘tol’ and ‘smol’ in relation to ‘tall’ and ‘small’) and this is constant. we are doing this daily without any sort of breathing space because there’s millions of us on this hellsite and we are constantly talking and so the language changes day-by-day until we have general, universal rules for what to do in a post, what to add in our tags, how to add it, why we add it, what we mean by it

we’ve created a language in the same way our ancestors all did: by building on the ones that came before and changing them to suit our needs and our system

and that’s fucking awesome okay

awesome

I love this so much and language is so great and I’ve noticed the lack of punctuation thing recently, even on twitter, and used it for like a specific kind of rhetorical effect. idk it’s so fun I fucking love linguistics and the evolution of language

I also loved that the following one-word responses all sound drastically different out loud and showcase different reactions:

What?

What.

what

you know it also occurs to me that due to how - unlike twitter - we indulge in memes for weeks or months at a time, to the point of some of them becoming shorthand used for years after the fact, we also have a lot of our own oft-incomprehensible-if-translated-literally idioms, of a sort! (not PRECISELY idioms, but they’re something more than just a funny meme, a lot of times, y’know?)

AND many of them are visual idioms or w/e, is that a thing? we use specific images (or images clearly based on the original image) to indicate a certain emotion or response, often with either not enough words to actually convey the response on their own, or no words at all! But those of us fluent in this dialect know what’s meant by it and it actually communicates quite clearly. Which is hella cool. :D

Tumblr is one of those sites that’s insular enough that it’s essentially ended up coming up with a language and culture of its own, to the point where if I interact with someone online whose main social media is Twitter or Reddit I can more or less instantly tell that they’re Not From Around Here. It’s cool and a little freaky at the same time.

Tumblr is an island ecosystem and we are the finches evolving more and more highly specialized bills.

I think a lot of people spent their childhoods being very deliberately forced out of their comfort zones by parents / teachers / whomever in a way that was just deeply unpleasant and degrading and so, when they reach young adulthood and are finally allowed real control over their lives, become set on only doing things they know they're comfortable with forever. that's a really important thing to be able to do, especially if you're so used to having your boundaries routinely ignored that you aren't even certain what you like vs what you can bear, so I absolutely see why a person would have a negative reaction to being told that discomfort is good: it can very easily sound like being told that all that work they've been doing to prioritze their needs for the first time ever is Bad and Selfish, actually. and to that I will say two things:

one: as long as you aren't hurting or, like, being a dick to anyone, just staying in your comfort zone isn't an immoral action. if you just want to read one type of book (or just fanfiction), or just eat one type of food, or just watch one type of movie, or not go to new types of social events, you aren't being a bad person for that, and if people say that, they are soundly wrong and just trying to get a self-righteousness kick.

two: trying new things because you want to expand yourself feels a hell of a lot different than trying new things because you're being forced to. you'll feel better about trying new foods if you know you have a back up familiar one in case you can't stomach the new one, it's easier to read new books if you can experiment with audio versions or reading it in little five-page chunks by yourself, you can breathe a lot easier going somewhere new if you aren't chained there for three hours because your parent is your ride home, etc.

tl;dr: new things are good. I get why you might not want to try new things, and that's fine, but it's also more comfortable to try new things as an adult with your own agency so, yeah, what have you got to lose by trying a weird old art film?

It's really important to recognize that the negative reaction you might have to being forced into something new might make your reaction much worse than if you had the no-pressure option to explore it on your own. I always try new foods when no one is around, or only some few close friends I trust on that level, because I feel judged for being a picky eater - even if people aren't *actually* judging me, I feel judged anyways and the pressure makes the whole experience unpleasant and I'm less likely to enjoy the food

It's also important to recognize that sometimes, newness, in and of itself, can trigger a disgust reaction. For this reason, when i'm genuinely trying some new food/drink, I take a small bite/sip or two to get over the initial "this is new and new is bad ew ew ew" reaction, and then take the next bite/sip to actually evaluate how I feel about the flavor/texture/etc. Even when i don't end up liking the food, this often takes a food I'd be super grossed out by and moves it closer to the "eh i simply don't like it" category.

Things to do when you want to give up

1. Take some time out to recuperate. You can’t keep going if you’re running on empty.

2. Take a step back to try and gain perspective – as sometimes we can’t see the woods for the trees.

3. Attempt to take stock of the current situation. Evaluate what you really want and need.

4. Try to re-evaluate your current strategy. What things are working and what things should you change?

5. Don’t be afraid to change direction if you need to. Sometimes that is the best thing – and it opens up new options.

6. Push through the dip - as we all lose momentum. But if you keep on going, you will get there in the end.

WEIRD TO THINK THAT ME AND ORBOT HAVE BEEN DOIN THIS BLOG THING SINCE 2016 AND WE'RE JUST NORMAL PARTS OF YOUR GUYS' LIVES SOMETIMES

LIKE IMAGINE WANTING SONIC OR TAILS BUT INSTEAD YOU GET ME AND ORBOT

WE'RE COOLER ANYWAY

season 2 episode 1

Cubot’s sass faces are my favorite thing. When CUBOT’S not impressed, you know you fucked up.

There! Now evil courses through my very circuits! AND I LIKE IT.

This is one of my all time favorite Orbot and Cubot moments.

My absolute favorite part of this is the fact that when Sonic is going to kill Eggman, Orbot and Cubot just kinda have that face of “yeah you had this coming eggbrains, you enjoy the rest of this episode, buh bye”

“I didn’t have a plan! All that stuff just HAPPENED.” Dr Eggman, 2017

Orbot and Cubot are my last two brain cells.