When you take a sickie and your mate tags you playing beer pong...
Learning materials week 9.
Yep, true story. I can’t even begin to explain the level of cringe that took place between the moment of seeing the tag, telling my friend to delete it and cracking the next beer. Well, maybe not too much – thankfully my boss is listed as an “acquaintance” on Facebook, making them completely blind to my posts [and those I’m tagged in].
However, I’ve also been in awkward social situations. The kind where you’re hanging out with someone right after you’ve told someone else you’re busy, and this person is disliked by the other. #awkies
It’s becoming quite the debate; to tag or not to tag. Would Shakespeare be proud?
Videos, selfies, images – they’re all increasingly used throughout social media platforms to build connections with users across different cultures (Lange 2009). Short videos [aka vines] are strewn throughout my Facebook feed and I am both tagged and tagging others in the comments of vines at least four times a day. In tagging a particular person in a vine, I am looking at it in two ways:
Does this video remind me of this person; and/or
Will this person find this video as funny as I do.
There’s not much method to my madness.
However, lately my mam decided to join Facebook land – resulting in self-monitoring my comments and tags. It would seem I’m not the only one to experience this, with most young people expressing ‘degrees of anxiety, concern and fascination with the visual landscapes encountered through Facebook’ (Hand 2012, p. 175).
I know I say this every week; but technology, the internet and the way we use it is all forever changing. Social media protocol in general is a liquid thing (Demetriades 2015), so as much as we want there to be some kind of socially-acceptable protocol to tagging, there isn’t and there never can be. Fortunately, for my generation, we are ‘the first to grow up and proceed into adulthood having mastered how and when and why’ to use social media platforms (Demetriades 2015).
REFERENCES
Demetriades, D 2015, “Facebook Photos: To Tag Or Not To Tag”, The Odyssey, viewed 4 January 2016, <http://theodysseyonline.com/muhlenberg-college/to-tag-or-not-to-tag/219048>.
Hand, M 2012, Ubiquitous Photography, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Lange, P 2009, “Videos of Affinity on YouTube”, in P, Snickars & P, Vonderau (eds), The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, p. 70-88.
I can definitely relate to this. Especially when someone has tagged you in their photos and you aren’t exactly friends or no longer friends. It can lead to some awkward situations. It’s been really interesting to read another perspective on the whole to tag or not to tag issue.
I am rather envious of the understanding of the cultural norms associated with ‘the socially acceptable protocols’: my 16 year old son has a quiet smirk at my shock at some of the posts, and trolling, I see on his social media sites (when I get a second’s peak!). At least completing this unit has given me a little more insight. Thanks for an entertaining post.
Love the title of this post :) HA HA HA















