Tag: tumblr

  • Another reason I would un-follow you

    A few of the blogs I follow are starting to tend towards self-promotion recently. If it continues, I’ll probably un-follow them. It’s not personal. I just prefer not to see certain people in such a light. Physical appearances taint our interactions with others in daily life, while on tumblr, I tend to appreciate the sincerity of opinions, albeit annoying ones at times, that are offered without care or concern for how the person would be perceived by others. Once the whole personal promotion thing gets out there, it becomes a blog of facades rather than sincere thoughts or views. That is often easily reflected in the change in tone and quality of the posts and usually ends up appealing to groupies, which I despise. Hence my aversion to such blogs. 

    Just thought I’d share that.

  • The anonymity of the url has bolstered some people’s egos to the point where they believe that if their url is known, and they’re not deliberately anonymous, then it makes them sincere. Tumblr has effectively redefined the minimum requirements for sincerity and integrity. 　

  • On Opinions and A-holes

    Something I realised this morning, and this may seem like a retarded realisation because it’s so obvious, but I realised that opinions most often reflect the mentality and competence of the person offering it, rather than defining what is being critiqued. It’s obvious that an opinion is simply someone’s point of view about something or someone, but given how often people feel damaged because of the opinions of others, I suspect that like me, many know the truth about opinions but few realise it.

    It’s like knowing that if you touch a hot coal, you’ll burn. But realising how painful that burn is only happens when you actually touch it. Same with opinions. Knowing that someone is an ass-hole for offering an uninformed opinion is one thing, but unless you realise it, you’ll allow that uninformed opinion to negatively affect you. In some cases, it could also lead to you being unrealistically deluded about your supposed greatness if you focus on the positive opinions of others only. 

    Tumblr is opinion heaven! We have undiscovered sages, gurus, geniuses, professors, scholars, legends and so much more. And then we click on their ‘About’ page and we realise that they’re still in high school, or still trying to figure out what it means to live independent of their parents, or worse still, they’re trying to figure out if there’s a life beyond Tumblr! 

    This week I’ve been in a decidedly abrasive mood with many around me. I’ve dumped my considerate tone and disposition in favour of a more frank and in-your-face demeanour instead. It probably won’t last, but at times I think it’s needed because often people take advantage and become lazy to apply their minds if they know that I’m always willing to take the time to explain the same thing over and over again until they eventually get it. So I guess I’m just as opinionated as many others on here. The difference is, most people’s opinions of me are like water off a duck’s back. Like farting against thunder. Like crying in the rain. It has no impact because I have learnt to be very selective about who I take advice or opinions from.

    This has been an opinion by one that many may consider an ass-hole. Not that I care. 

  • The virtual reality of life

    There is no line between virtuality and reality. Any line that you thought existed was simply a deception of your own mind. Online platforms give us the ability to escape our real lives under the guise of anonymity to the point where we identify ourselves as a url and assume that that is sufficient to justify our deceptive nature.

    Living a lie, be it online or in real life, is still living a lie. At no point is it acceptable to live by differing standards of morality because doing so lays the foundation of insincerity that will contaminate the flesh and blood relationships that you have. It feeds the same morbid self-indulgence that drives us to deceive those we’ve allowed into our personal space. If your online profile is vastly different from your real life behaviour, you’re fooling someone, and in all likelihood, that someone may very well be yourself included.

    People that are trusting are dismissed as gullible, while people that are insincere are accepted as normal. This is truly a case of us focusing so closely on the form that we miss the essence of what we’re doing. Escapism is entirely possible without misleading others. It’s easy to cry victim when we’ve been misled, but almost impossible to see our own deception for what it is simply because we’re looking to defend our actions and explain the context rather than appreciating that hiding behind masks is as detrimental online as it is in real life. 

    If you still believe that it is justifiable to hide behind masks online, then be clear about one simple truth that seems to elude many. Sincerity dictates that you are always clear about what is fictional about you and what is real. Whether this is online or not. Sincerity doesn’t come with qualifiers or disclaimers, nor does honesty. Any actions that I have recently defended or objected to online I will do so again, despite growing evidence that I may have been wrong. 

    In a world of spin doctors and politicians, and masses that despise them but aspire to operate like them, I choose to be the naive idiot that sits with egg on his face because others were more adept at seeing the reality of deception rather than trusting others the way they yearn to be trusted. For every single time that I assume the worst or treat with unfounded suspicion the actions of others, I warrant, justify, and invite the same for myself. 

    I may be cynically jaded about life, and entirely sceptical about people, but I will never use my life’s struggles to justify the blatant manipulation of others under the context of “they should’ve known better cos everyone else does it as well.” Regardless of how accurate or inaccurate my observations may be of others, who I am relative to how I live will always remain a constant, either on equal footing that leads to wholesomeness of purpose, or on unequal footing that will lead to chaos in my soul. 

  • I pray that I will never be beholden to society. Such obligation has seen the most well-meaning turn into the most attention-seeking. And if the profession of humility is in itself arrogance, then I am already teetering on the brink of such filth by making this statement to begin with.

  • Some Muslims on Tumblr…Disappointing :'(

    I’ve found, disappointingly so, that many of my fellow Muslim bloggers have turned out to be insincere and arrogant. Especially many of those that are outwardly and in-your-face religiously pious. I genuinely try to engage with many of them in a meaningful manner so that we can really dissect some important issues and perhaps expose a different perspective on things, but instead, the moment I go against the norm and question sacredly-held scholars, I’m dismissed or just totally ignored.

    On the contrary, I’ve found that my engagements with non-Muslims are often more sincere since they would often extend themselves to really heartily debate an issue, and only after some interesting exchanges would we tend to agree to disagree, or arrive at a point of understanding. And this is on contentious issues like atheism versus theism, morality, homosexuality, premarital relationships, religion, politics and the like.

    Unfortunately we lack maturity needed to engage meaningfully amongst Muslims, because every debate is hinged around a single focal point. i.e. You’re either in agreement with my scholar, or you’re a deviant. This is disheartening, because a few months ago I made a decision to try to engage more with Muslims on Tumblr, and instead of finding solace and familiarity, I found bickering and condescension.

    Really sad state. 🙁

  • Thoughts on Tumblr

    In many cases, but definitely not all, Tumblr gives me a view into what really rests within a person’s heart without distracting me with societal prejudices. I’ve often been pleasantly surprised to read the thoughts and passions expressed by bloggers, forming a mental image of them, and then stumbling across a photo in their archives that reveals how stereotypical my assessment of them really was. Not negatively so. Just a few innocently incorrect assumptions. 

    Some people tend to use their Tumblr blogs to form an alternate reality for themselves, while others use it to expose a side that they’d dare not expose to anyone in real life. Yet others seem to use it to engage in a way that would otherwise not be possible because a lot of what is shared and discussed on Tumblr would probably raise more than just a curious eyebrow in real life. I think I fall largely in this group.

    There is pretty much no one in real life that I can engage with about a lot of what I share on my blog without them thinking me to be strange, superficial, pretentious, or worse. But my true joy in blogging was realised when I finally accepted that seeking affirmation for every post I wrote was not what I wanted from this. That was the most liberating realisation for me because up to that point, I realised that Tumblr was turning me into an attention whore. So more recently, my blog has become a more true reflection of me, rather than what I want others to perceive of me. 

  • no great expectations at all…

    (Source: http://leilockheart.me)