Reddit VS Tumblr | Who’s Gonna Win This Time?

Which one’s better? Reddit or Tumblr? 
There have been numerous debates, or should I say, online wars between Redditors and Tumblrs. Both the platforms are hyped for the internet’s most heated debates, and this time the debate is on ‘Reddit vs Tumblr.’ If you have ever used either of these apps, then you’ll definitely enjoy reading this article. 

Reddit and Tumblr both were made in the early 2000s to attract the internet’s intellectuals. Basically, people who love to rant. Little did anyone know the users of leading forums would become mortal enemies of each other and have massive fights over which app is better. Well, if you also asked the same question once, here is your answer. 

In the US, Tumblr ranks on 25 whereas Reddit is at the 10th position. Reddit has overall a far bigger user base than Tumblr because of various reasons. It was launched two years prior to Tumblr and still has more monthly active users. But does that make Reddit better than Tumblr? 

We promise you, we have been totally unbiased with our opinions and have considered these points after analyzing every aspect of these platforms. Let’s move forward to the next section. Stay Tuned!  

A Fair Comparison on “Reddit vs Tumblr“

Tumblr and Reddit both are social platforms making a strong impact on their audiences. We are going to decode both of them here according to their credibility, people, and the quality of content.

Tumblr is ideally a blogging platform that races to be in the league of popular social networking platforms. It has more than 470 Million blog posts accounts, and the number of total blog posts goes beyond 200 Billion. That’s Huge! You can post pictures, gifs, videos, texts, and links on Tumblr. On Tumblr, you follow the people if you like their content and discuss it in comments. 

The content of the people you follow will determine what comes to your dashboard (feed). Now let’s talk about Reddit.

Reddit is a social networking platform purely made for its users. It’s a forum having more than 430 million monthly active users. In fact, 18% of adults in the US are Reddit Users. With such a big user base, Reddit is popular for its opinionated discussions and welcoming users. Now let’s talk about who’s good at what.

1. Motive For Interaction

A user on Debate.org said, “Tumblr is for interacting with people, Reddit is for interacting with subjects.” This is because Tumblr gives you more content of what you follow, and Reddit is more content of what communities you are in.

Tumblr is a place where you follow people directly. Whatever that person has to say will show up on your dashboard, which makes it a good platform for making online friends. Reddit is based on a whole different ideology. In Reddit, the users subscribe to subreddits (communities based on liked interests). You discuss your interests, vote comments, and posts up and down. 

On Reddit, you won’t see a person’s content on your main page because Reddit doesn’t forcibly feed you what you don’t what. It doesn’t expect that if you share a subreddit with someone, you will like all their posts. This is unlike Tumblr, which feeds you content from the people you follow. 

Let’s take an example. Suppose you follow someone on Tumblr because they post pictures of their paintings. But if they also post some artistic that you don’t want to see, it will show on your dashboard. You won’t have a choice to ‘not’ see some content of someone you follow. (if that made sense)

On the other hand, if you would like to see paintings on Reddit, you’ll just follow a subreddit on paintings. People might still post some artistic in comments, but that can be voted up or down or ignored. That’s the choice Reddit gives you. 

2. Who Accepts Diverse Opinion? Reddit or Tumblr?

On Reddit, you’ll see a lot of posts having screenshots of Tumblr’s social justice blogs with some mockery. But why is it so? Tumblr has a wide range of expressive communities, where people go on long debates on ‘Social Justice’ and fandoms. There are debates on sexism, classism, feminism, and everything that ends with ‘ism.’ 

In a lot of debates on Tumblr, the narrative easily drifted towards victim-blaming and accusation rather than having a constructive debate. You’ll very easily see a conversation moving towards hate, which makes us say that people are a little less tolerant on Tumblr. 

Debates on Reddit are also on diverse topics ranging from politics to anything silly. After all, the social networking platform was built for discussions. Just like Tumblr, debates also become hateful after a point (its internet, after all). However, the conversation never ends up being constructive. That’s the main difference between Reddit and Tumblr. 

Of course, some opinions need to be changed, but that only happens when one realizes their ignorance, which precisely happens at Reddit. If you don’t like some kind of comments or posts in a subreddit, you can easily filter them out, Tumblr gives you an option. 

3. Who’s The Best For Fandom? Reddit or Tumblr? 

If you are not such a serious person who doesn’t like to dwell in politics and ‘social justice’ on the internet, then both platforms are still great for you. Especially if you are a fan of some show or an actor or anything, you’ll find a space for you on Tumblr. 

The platform is known for being a hub of all the fandoms. You can literally find any fandom here. ANY! You will find yourself following people without even realizing you have become a fan of their art or fanart. There is a gorgeous collection of art pieces on Tumblr that is not found on Reddit. Sorry, Redditers! But it’s true. 

Fanart content never expires on Tumblr. Even the same art that you saw will show up having more reach than before. This is amazing for all the artist communities because Tumblr is a place that appreciates art and won’t let your art die, even after years of posting it. 

That’s why we recommend you to use Tumblr if you are an artist or love watching fanart or any art over the internet because this place has loads of it. 

Also, Tumblr is popular for a little less known reason, which is its camgirls. Yep, that’s a word for girls who post sexually stimulating posts for financial reasons, and they enjoy it as much as their viewers. Did you know this? 

4. Better Platform For Personal Blogging, Reddit or Tumblr? 

Reddit is a pro app in many other fields, but blogging is something just out of the box for it. Tumblr, on the other hand, was made for blogging and discussions. Many people share their personal blogs on Tumblr with their stories of Mental disorders and child abuse. A lot of personal stuff is shared on Tumblr. 

People write about morality, existence; basically, everything a modern writer is interested in will be found on Tumblr. You know that is the best thing about it? Tumblr appreciates its bloggers by giving them a special tag. Do you know what it is? 

“Tumblr Famous” is a title given to the blogs that go viral on the app. It is for the most popular blogs on Tumblr. If you are a blogger on Tumblr, you should definitely look forward to getting this title, as it will only make you more popular on the app. Also, readers will trust you more after they see Tumblr Famous on your blogs. You can only imagine how credible that will make your content. 

Reddit, however, is not a blogging platform. So, it doesn’t have such titles for its users. Also, if you are looking for blogs on Reddit, you are at the wrong place. I’m sure there are some intellectuals writing their thoughts out on Reddit posts, but a blog is a blog. You’ll find plenty of blogs on Tumblr. 

5. Who Chooses What You’re Gonna See? 

This point is highly debated on both platforms when there is a talk of ‘Reddit vs Tumblr.’ The answers can be subjective. Since it is time when every big brand, every big app is working to enhance the user experience and giving more power to its users, Tumblr is just lagging in the race. 

Tumblr, as we said earlier, doesn’t give its users the choice to filter the content s/he want to see. Users cannot choose what to see from a curator and what not to. This power to choose the content you want to see was all along with Reddit users since the start.

Reddit hands over everything to its users. From voting to filtering, users get to decide whom they want to see. Especially the voting feature. You can vote on the posts, pictures, comments on all posts. You can even filter comments. It’s a feature even Facebook doesn’t have yet. 

You vote a comment or a post up and down to show your reaction, and it will change the dynamics in real-time.

Wrapping Up

After going through every aspect of these popular platforms, we can say that Reddit gives you a better space to lay your thoughts out, while Tumblr is great for sharing personal blogs but not discussing them.

Both have their pros and cons, but because Reddit offers such a wide range of fields to indulge yourself in, we have to keep it a step above. If you are thinking of giving these apps a shot, then use Reddit first and then Tumblr.

Although you might have a different view of the app, and we welcome all of them at PathOfEx. 

Share this article with your friends and have a nice day. 

Featured Image Credits: DeviantArt