The bottom of the laptop is at a scorching temperature and the clicking sounds of the keyboard fill the room. Scroll, like, click, reblog. Scroll, like, click, reblog. Suddenly, trends are easier to look into than homework is.

According to globalwebindex, the average teen spends 1.72 hours each day on popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Founded in 2007, Tumblr, a blog site, has risen to fame. Its ability to include many aspects of other social media sites, such as the ability to like, reblog and blog posts, and have conversations with friends and followers has teenagers hooked.

“I probably shouldn’t be spending any time on Tumblr, because it’s usually at like one in the morning, when I should be writing my essay or whatever,” said Ben Laughlin, Div. 858.

In a recent survey of 47 students, conducted by The Warrior, 43 percent of students said that they go on Tumblr every day. Whether it is for news, fandoms, memes, or everything in between, there is a great amount of teens going on this site.

“It is the best social media site due to the fact that it basically has something for everyone,” said Kirsten Apel, Div. 651.

One of Tumblr’s main features is the ability to share global news. One will often see hashtags, pictures, and opinions, shared by famous Tumblr users. Those users will often influence their followers to believe in what they do.

“People have influence with what they know or don’t know about,” said another Tumblr user, Czaerra Ucol, Div. 676.

Other times, bloggers who identify as activists target the uninformed users. One will often see long text posts of users arguing against each other.

“I like going on it because it’s the same kind of sense of humor that I have, and sometimes aesthetically pleasing. My issues are with the way people can get very defensive and get angry really quickly,” said Kylie Carlson, Div. 752.

According to the New York Times, there are more than 215 million blogs on Tumblr. Furthermore, according to comScore, an analytics company, 50 percent of Tumblr users are between the ages of 15 to 34 years old. Many identify as activists, associating with LGBT+ and Black LivesMatter.

“Individuals are smart, creative, funny, and they can have their own wonderful ideas,” said Ucol. “But as a group, sometimes their perceptions of things are skewed, and that can be negative. If one Tumblr-famous person says something bad, a lot of their followers will immediately agree with them, without researching what they’re talking about.”

This misconception that Tumblr is only a positive media site is further supported with the lack of reliability on the site. With 215 million blogs, credibility is often questioned.

“They want to spread certain ideas and push forward a certain mindset. It’s Tumblr in a nutshell,” said Laughlin.

An example of this was the “Love Wins” hashtag trending on social media sites. On Tumblr, the hashtag was a cause for celebration, and many were posting their hardships and weddings. Whether it was out of peer pressure or happiness, the site was full of rainbows.

One couple posted their wedding on Tumblr, and received much recognition for their love story. However, eventually it was proven that they were actually making fun of the LGBT+ celebration and marriage equality legalization. Many Tumblr users were appalled by this, but because of who they followed, they chose to stay silent.

“For the most part, Tumblr is like Wikipedia. It’s in general a good source for stuff like news. But, you should still look up credibility,” said Ucol.

Although Tumblr is known for being an open-minded site, teenagers say it is sometimes anything but open-minded.

“It’s a good source for fanart and fanfiction, and just for good advice,” said Laughlin. “But, like I said, it’s so polarized that it changes people. When people started using Tumblr super consistently, it changes how they see the world. It changes how you view people and it gets to a point where you’re unable to interact with someone who disagrees with you.