I was born in 1978 and I’ve often seen it said that I belong in some sort of sandwich generation where I’m not really a part of any of the recognized generations since I was exposed to technology as a kid but it wasn’t really ubiquitous until I reached adulthood. For reference, I had a rudimentary laptop in college although I still did a lot of computer work in a computer lab and I didn’t get a cell phone until I was in law school and it was super simple and also huge!
Now, I’m online a great deal and I have accounts on a lot of different social media platforms. Sometimes, especially during this pandemic, I think I interact with people more on social media than in real life at times.
And yet.
I find myself to be a bit of a luddite at times.
Recently, I posted on Twitter some questions about the difference between commenting and retweeting with a comment and received a FLOOD of great information about what is expected and what is deemed impolite. **Mind Blown!** I’d inadvertently been less than polite multiple times, I’m sure, and now I’ve tried to adjust my instinctive behaviors.
But one thing that I can’t get my mind around is this tagging thing.
I’m pretty active on social media, specifically in the MBC Community, and I’ve been tagged in various posts. Usually it’s because a friend and I are doing something together or they want me to see something or it’s a celebration of something I’ve been involved with.
And then there are those organizations who tag me in a post where I have no idea the connection or why I would be tagged in a post. Each time, I’ve sent messages to ask why I’ve been tagged. Each time, I’ve gotten responses along the lines of “Oh, I’ll remove you,” or “Oh, it was an intern,” or “Do you not want to be tagged?”
But I’d like to know WHY!!
I think it comes down to accessing my network especially since the posts usually have something to do with Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) since those who have MBC are a huge part of the people I’m connected with. Or I suppose the organization might want to call my attention to the item or event or topic they are promoting.
But really, why?!
I do have a serious need to know why I’m tagged in something, especially when the organization is not one that I support and isn’t one that is supportive of this of us with MBC. There are those organizations that cater to the early stage of breast cancer havers and just aren’t supportive of those of us with MBC or advanced breast cancer. Tagging me in a post is not just tone deaf, it’s offensive. When this occurs, I usually comment on the post saying so, but the organization can simply delete the comment and they usually do. On Facebook, I have the ability to remove a tag when I’ve been tagged in a post. That ability doesn’t seem available on Instagram or Twitter, as far as I can tell.
But what are the protocols? When is it ok to tag someone in a post? Help me, readers!!
No Half Measures 
I use Twitter a lot, plus my blog of course, and very lightly FB, but honestly I’m not much “up” on the person-tagging thing either. I like to add the @___ of a person on translations I do of their post (written in something other than English), or sometimes, responding to a person who’s commented on one of my tweets, but other than that, not so much. And I usually ignore huge tag list tweets, as they’re usually just to start a chain of tweets, lol! I find my times I’m tagged by someone, or a commercial group, I don’t know, it’s to try and get me to promote whatever they’re into. Wish I could be more helpful. I do think tweets can be reported to Twitter, plus a repeat tagged can also be muted. Be interesting to see what other folk might say here 😊
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Thanks for weighing in!!
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I don’t like being tagged of someone I don’t know. I am just like you I want to know why. It is a sort of spam and I find it just like you offensive.
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Like someone else mentioned, it’s a form of spam. They’re trying to get your attention and/or engagement.
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Hi Abigail,
Generally, I don’t like being tagged on social media unless there’s a clear reason. I usually just ignore a tag unless the reason is obvious to me or if it’s clearly something I’m interested in. And those long ones…yikes, annoying, again, unless there’s a clear reason for it. I don’t do chain-type stuff anywhere.
I tag people on FB, Twitter and Instagram when I’m quoting them, sharing something from them or want them to see what I’m sharing for some specific reason. I don’t do random tagging. FB is super annoying now as I can’t seem to tag friends (like you) from my page. It only lets me tag pages. FB is annoying for other reasons too.
So, that’s what I do. I think you can do whatever you want. 🙂
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So many weird things on social media!! I’m still trying to figure out all the rules!
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I think it’s more than socially acceptable now, Abigail. I’m a whole lot older than you, so I take my cue from people closer to your age. If done manually, a tag says to the tagee, “I think you’d like to read this.” If done automatically, it may be more offensive. Recently, I’ve tried to tweet a person’s post after I read it because, “sharing is caring,” That automatically tags the person who wrote the article. I can’t keep up with all social media, blog reading and composing, so I don’t try. I went 10 weeks without responding to the people who liked my snow pictures on Facebook. I felt really rude, but yesterday I spent about an hour responding to them all. I think most people get one social media they like (that includes blogs) and they concentrate. 🙂
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Such great points!! I am also a little astonished overall that there are so many rules or that things mean something else. Thank you for reading and commenting. 🙂
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You’re welcome. It’s a changing way of communication. It’s instantaneous and free, easy, so it is dynamic and has more nuances that we can possibly keep up with. Whenever something new or uncomfortable happens, I think it’s just like we tell kids, we need to have people we can talk to about it.
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I have no idea what the rules are. I don’t think you can tag on wordpress and if you could they would change the rule tomorrow just to make it difficult.
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Lol. True!
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford.
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Thank you!!
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I’m so new to social media and have lots to learn. But I agree that it’s odd to be tagged out of the blue. It’s much like spam. I’m starting to get tagged more often from unrelated posts on all my social media sites. I try to be polite but mostly ignore. Also, I get lots of private messages from what I think are bots. Asking me, “How are you?” I ignore those too.
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It’s so hard to know what’s a bot and what’s a real person perhaps using a different name on social media. Such a minefield!
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I am not really up on Twitter, but I know in Facebook if you tag someone in a post, it appears on their timeline and you get notified of all responses. I have learned that if I post something I really want someone to see, I should comment on the post and tag them in the comment. That way they will look at it but not be burdened by it. On Facebook you can also un tag yourself on posts. Don’t know if Twitter has that capacity.
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I wish Twitter and Instagram allowed for removing tags! They should!!
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