It’s all a blr: Motivating your study
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By: Christine Chow
Coined as a portmanteau from the words “study” and “Tumblr,” a “studyblr” is exactly what it sounds like: a Tumblr blog used for the purposes of studying. While many types of Tumblr blogs exist, ranging from hipster to fandom to social justice blogs the way stereotypical cliques mark their territory in a high school cafeteria, the studyblr is a strange attempt at reconciling the polar opposites of academics and procrastination (by means of social media).
As opposed to the average gifset, studyblrs tend to post or reblog aesthetic pictures of personal workspaces. These are often filtered shots of desks topped with nice plants, glossy computer screens, post-its, and neatly arranged sets of notebooks. Other reblogs show close-ups of notes in a combination of different colours and fonts, surrounded by an array of classy pens.
The obvious judgment is to dismiss these blogs as pointless. Reblogging or liking pictures of other people’s study set-ups in no way helps you get your own studying done, and if you’re too busy ooh-ing and aw-ing over the aesthetics of someone else’s workspace, trying to capture the perfect angle of your own, or beautifying your notes, then you’re wasting valuable time you could otherwise be using to mentally process what you missed out on during that lecture you fell asleep in.
However, if you’re like the majority of the student population, you’ve probably already come to terms with your inherent inability to stomach the multitude of information that gets vomited up by the course syllabus. You sit for hours on end in the same spot, staring at the same generic word document of notes you’ve managed to compile over the span of the term and flipping through the same tasteless PowerPoint slides your professor has probably recycled from last year. By comparison, venturing into the depths of Mordor seems like a much more appealing task.
A closer look at the Studyblr community reveals a group of like-minded individuals who are willing to empathize with the chronic symptoms of studying. In addition to sharing pictures, bloggers also share solid note-taking tips. For instance, how to start a bullet journal: a current popular technique for organizing all your tasks and to-do lists by code. Further investigation reveals self-care tips for mediating study stress, as well as favourite stationary types and methods of condensing information that have helped individual bloggers succeed.
Tumblr’s rise to fame in the past couple of years is accorded not just to its standing as a social media platform, but to its creativity and adaptability for multiple demographics – a metaphorical Room of Requirement. Though the effectiveness of its “study group” aesthetic is definitely questionable, its unique attempt to incorporate what all students dread into a leisure activity ought to be admired. Everyone studies differently, so there’s no harm in trying out different studying methods until you find out what works best for you.
Check out these studyblrs:
Photo Credit: Pretty Studying
