Everybody’s heard of that Twitter thing — whether they like it or not is another story, but there’s no denying that it’s caught on as a huge internet media tool.

I personally don’t use it in a particularly social sense — apologies to all two of my friends, but I’m not really using my account to follow your lives; I’m using it to get information — news and links and such. And Kevin Thau, Twitter’s VP for business and corporate development, agrees with me, ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez reports: Thau said on Sept. 14 that Twitter isn’t a social network at all, but a tool used for news, content and information.

Then along comes Tumblr. It’s way less popular than the little blue birdie, but it’s used for a much different purpose. It’s set up very similarly, in that there’s a time-based feed of all the people you’re following, but it’s not as instant-gratification oriented and way more touchy-feely. Check out, for example, what was in my Twitter and Tumblr feeds one day last week:

TWITTER

The Baltimore Sun has an updated story — "Jessamy has not conceded city state’s attorney race; Bernstein hasn’t declared victory. http://bit.ly/d9UUhO #mdvote"

CQ Politics reports "Political News: Tea Partiers Have Potential to Drive Debate on Capitol Hill, Boehner Says http://bit.ly/aGz2eS"

The Wall Street Journal reports "America’s best bathroom, according to one survey, is in a St. Louis restaurant http://on.wsj.com/9L"

TUMBLR:

brokenmachine posts a picture of a hand-drawn postcard that says "I don’t know where home is, but I’m on my way."

letsgetrestless posts a picture of a tattooy guy all wrapped up on the floor with a really skinny girl.

young-n-reckless posts a picture of a young dude on a city street smoking a cigarette and holding a cup of Starbucks really close to his face.

You see what I’m talking about? Tumblr is the Twitter for people who like hugs. Yes, there are people that use Tumblrs for more topical and link-based stuff, but it’s designed for this artsy picture, deep-thinkin’ stuff. Individual posts are deeper (no 140-character limit here), but to me, it doesn’t have the feeling of being a tool as much as a Facebooky social networking deal. My one piece of evidence: Tumblr has a Twitter account, and Twitter does not have a Tumblr.

What do YOU think? Do you use either site? How do you use them differently? Do you prefer one over the other, and for what?