Preface: Much of my research focuses on the social media platform Tumblr and its user base. As a person who has been using Tumblr for around a decade now the intricacies of platform use are always changing. I wrote this piece while thinking about the phenomena of “talking in the tags” especially as it is not something that is seen on other platforms.
I love “talking in the tags” on Tumblr. It blurs the line between public and private while providing the space for me to comment on content without adding on to the post itself. But other platforms do not use tags in the same way they are used on Tumblr. The organization of social media platforms generally relies on a tagging system where a word or a phrase is entered with a “#” in front. Using “a pound sign in front of a word signals to audiences that it was intended to be findable by anyone who searched for it,” which has been incorporated into most social media platforms. (Daer, Hoffman, & Goodman, 2014, 1) When users “perform a “search” for a particular word or phrase… all the posted tweets using that hashtag will appear” and, more recently, any posts that use the words within the hashtag. (Ibid)
Across platforms, tagging has different functions and different meanings. Tagging functions as both an organization system and a way to be known, especially on platforms where one can monetarily profit from being “internet famous.” Tumblr as a platform complicates both tagging and profiting off internet status, changing the context of tagging and its function. Instead of using tags to promote oneself, Tumblr uses the tags as a semi-private space to add commentary without adding to the post itself. “Talking in the tags” changes the context in which we can understand tagging where the usage is less about promotion and categorization and more as a space where one can comment within an area where only one’s followers will see the comments instead of everyone who comes across the post.
Tagging creates a public conversation where the inclusion of a tag in a post also means the inclusion in a larger conversation. (Zappavigna & Martin, 2018, 1) Users create the content and use tags to either organize their posts or promote their content and group it with those who create similar content. Using tags is critical for gaining exposure for “influencers” or people making money from social media because those who follow a tag will be more likely to engage with your work. Tumblr creates an interesting problem when studying social media platforms and their functionality, as there is no way to build a career from Tumblr. One could make money by having a popular Instagram, YouTube, or even Twitter account, but “Tumblr famous” cannot monetize that fame. Where tagging systems can promote one’s work to a wider audience, Tumblr’s tagging and search system barely function, so tagging to advertise is not a common practice. Besides “talking in the tags,” the primary use of tagging is for others to block content they do not want to see. Tags for blocking can either be prefaced with a Content Warning (CW) or Trigger Warning (TW) and can go hand in hand with someone tagging to organize their blog. Combining tagging for organization and blocking purposes is not required by the platform but is proper etiquette. Due to the anonymous messaging system on Tumblr, users can get messages requesting that things be tagged. As a platform, Tumblr takes what people understand as the function of tagging and shifts it from a space strictly for the organization to a semi-private space of commentary.
For my research on inclusionist and exclusionist queer discourse on Tumblr, my primary mode of data collection is to search for tags on Tumblr. As outlined earlier, the problem with tagging on Tumblr is how people do not tag to categorize posts or optimize their searchability but instead to comment/”talk in the tags” or as organization on their blog. Often, searching through tags is more of an exploration of what people tag rather than what is being said. Even in original content where the original poster (OP) has the space to make whatever public declarations they desire, there is still “talking in the tags” where a more private or even controversial idea gets expressed. Non-organizational tagging plays “no role in enhancing the visibility and searchability of a post and would not be considered metadata labels like keyword tags,” which creates privacy. (Bourlai, 2018, 2) But “talking in the tags” does not always stay in the tags as people will copy and paste or ever screenshot tags to add to the original post. “Talking in the tags” exists in this space that is both private and public and does not fit with the ability to search for a tag as they are often too specific, or Tumblr’s search function won’t acknowledge them.
“Talking in the tags” presents both an opportunity to understand the differentiation between posting for a general audience and posting for a specific audience while also complicating the idea that tagging is strictly an organizational system. Approaching the tags on Tumblr as a semi-private space calls into question what parts of one’s online life are meant for the consumption of others. Tumblr adds a different context to what tagging means, especially as people accustomed to tagging systems outside of Tumblr (like Twitter and TikTok) join the platform. Using the phrase “previous tag” or “prev tag” now indexes that one must go to the blog where the post was reblogged to see the tags rather than the tags being copied and pasted into the post or added as a picture. This new evolution of tagging practices makes tagging even more of a semi-private space as people are not even taking the tags and adding them to the post. Instead, creating a rabbit hole of going back a chain of reblogs until you no longer see “prev tag.” Going to the original person who made the amusing tag might help them gain followers, but that does not mean much on a website where no one knows how many followers someone has and there is no financial gain.
Tagging practices on Tumblr disrupt the search system on the platform and change the understanding of the purpose of tagging. Rather than being a form of organization and promotion, there is an intimacy created by “talking in the tags.” While there are tags that do trend, generally tags used for organization, those are organized by Tumblr itself and not necessarily reflective of what people will see as popular on their dashboard. The disconnect between organizational tagging and “talking in the tags” means that posts pertaining to a specific topic may be very popular but ignored by the search system. Avoiding searchability goes against everything tagging was originally intended for and makes creating a history of tagging practices on Tumblr much more difficult. Abandoned, disabled, and shared blogs already make crediting the creator of concepts on the platform difficult to knowledge production and preservation. The frequent inability to track down the originators of concepts and posts directly confronts the temporariness of social media, where something can exist one second and be deleted the next.
“Talking in the tags” on Tumblr uses the tagging system to create a semi-private space on an otherwise wholly public platform. Using tags in this way is different than most other platforms and actively disrupts search functions. While Tumblr is not a platform one can get famous on and then profit, there is still status that comes with having funny tags, and “talking in the tags” is often encouraged by blogs where their purpose is to provide a prompt for users to answer in the tags. Looking at tagging strictly on Tumblr recontextualizes tagging as not a means of promotion or linking oneself to a larger conversation but as a personal aside to a larger discussion that is not inherently meant to be seen by everyone.
Works Cited
Bourlai, E. E. (2018). ‘Comments in tags, please!’: tagging practices on Tumblr. Discourse, context & media, 22, 1-11.
Daer, A. R., Hoffman, R., & Goodman, S. (2014, September). Rhetorical functions of hashtag forms across social media applications. In Proceedings of the 32nd ACM international conference on the design of communication CD-ROM (pp. 1-3).
Zappavigna, M., & Martin, J. R. (2018). # Communing affiliation: Social tagging as a resource for aligning around values in social media. Discourse, context & media, 22, 1-9.
Sara Schmieder 