Last year in my Big Bang Poetry newsletter, I sent out an article about how Tumblr was the up-and-coming social media player for young people. Facebook and Twitter are skewing more for old folks.
Because I care about reaching people younger than myself, I dutifully set up a Tumblr page. My page was pretty static with only basic information about how to link to my blogs and other web sites.
I was surprised a few months ago when I started getting a steady stream of new followers. Not just a few but like 40 followers in two months. I was confused about the activity but decided to create a new section of the Tumblr page for updates. I figured if people wanted to connect with me on Tumblr, I should update it more often.
However, something seemed a little off. The icons (pictures) of the new followers…well they didn’t look right. Let’s just say they looked more like someone you’d come across at a club on the Sunset Strip than someone you would run into at a poetry reading (or a Cher fan for that matter).
It all became clear to me one day when I received a new follower with a quite provocative icon image. Totally porno! Suddenly I had a theory about this. I wondered if I was being confused with a porn star. Could it be?
Monsieur Big Bang and I then ran a search for a porn star with the name of Mary McCray. Lo and behold, there is not only a porn actress named Marie McCray but she's alternatively known as Mary McCray. She has a Tumblr page and capitalizes on misspellings of her name.
All these new followers were following me mistakenly thinking they were following Marie McCray the porn star!
Imagine their dismay at all my poetry posts and Cher updates!
Monsieur Big Bang thinks I'm on to something. He thinks all poets should incorporate the name of a porn star into their own name to catch porn hits, names like Ron Jeremy Padgett or Nina Hartley Crane.
You can’t unfriend followers in Tumblr like you can in Facebook and I’m not sure I would want to. Maybe I can get one or two porn fans to consider the salacious potential of John Donne and H.D.
Read 10 sexy poems compiled by Flavorwire
Leave a Reply