[myNetWords.com] : Tagging

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Tagging

Updated : Monday 14 June 2010

When I heard that a blogger friend had been tagged, my first reaction was to sympathise, as I thought he must have been the victim of a graffiti artist with a spray can. I was way off the mark. On the internet, tagging someone is an act of friendship rather than aggression. It happens to bloggers. If someone tags you, it means that a blogger has sent you a message inviting you to post seven pieces of information on your own blog, so that your readers can get to know you better. Once you have done that, and put your revelations on line, it’s your turn to have to pick seven victims of your own, and invite them to reveal information about themselves. Be warned, though – you have to name the people you are tagging, on your blog. It’s really quite clever: knowing that everyone can see you’ve been tagged makes it more difficult to refuse to play the game.

Some of the very earliest bloggers, in the years from 1997 to 2000, were motivated by a somewhat narcissistic desire to bare their souls on line and chronicle their daily lives, in the – arguably no more altruistic — hope of making new friends. That’s how the game began, imbued with the early spirit of the blogosphere, and it’s why it still goes on.

This game works by "viral" transmission, as each consenting victim names seven more. Hence its success on the internet, where being tagged indicates a degree of recognition, albeit modest. Someone is interested enough in you to want to know your likes and dislikes, what makes you tick, your favourite books and films, your worst feature, your star sign, your state of health, and so on.

So, we are presented with the fact that a particular blogger hates bad weather, wind and rain as if that were some kind of private revelation. Or that when I like an album, I play it over and over! Yes but … don’t we all?

Some of them, though, are quite happy to divulge the most intimate details: I sometimes get cysts on my earlobes (they’re not visible to the naked eye). I get swollen feet. I have a phobia about numbers and caterpillars. Which is more revealing, certainly. In fact, it’s way too much information.

What a contradictory lot we are! On the one hand, we protest against government attempts to set up national computer records or identity cards as an infringement of civil liberties, but at the same time we expose our private lives on Facebook (without even upping the privacy settings on our profile) and happily play games of tag. Clearly, though, anyone who is tagged is leaving himself or herself open to manipulation. That’s why some bloggers dread being tagged and don’t know how to diplomatically kick the ball into the long grass when their blogger friends have the bright idea of inviting them to join in. Me? By now you’ll have realised there’s no point tagging me. Don’t even think about it. Find some other victim!

Beware, though – the expression "to tag someone" has taken on a whole new meaning with the advent of Facebook and other social networks, and this one has nothing to do with games between bloggers. Tagging someone means identifying that person by name on a photo you post on a social networking site. On Facebook, all you do is select a photo – let’s say an end-of-term photo of your class at school – and click on "In this photo" at the bottom left. Then, on the photo itself, select the schoolfriend you want to "tag" and enter their name in the window that pops up. The more friends you have on Facebook the more chance you have of being tagged. Not that this is necessarily such a good thing – you might prefer not to have been tagged on a photo of a night out with the lads (or ladettes)! Given the speed at which photos are being exchanged on social networking sites, the old meaning of "tagging" someone on a blog will soon be a thing of the past.