Distance matters: an exploratory analysis of the linguistic features of Flickr photo tag metadata in relation to impression management

Tags are words that users add to shared multimedia contents as metadata to facilitate better categorization and improved sharing experiences. With the burgeoning growth of shared images and videos over online social networks, a huge number of tags is being populated everyday in public or shared databases. While one major reason for tagging a photo or a video incorporates the functional needs for the organization of that shared object, people also use tags as a medium of communication for conveying their emotions to their family, friends, and other contacts. The diversity in the linguistic features of these tags demonstrates some interesting patterns that reflect different facets of human nature in managing their online impression to their social peers. This paper investigates how some linguistic features of tags associated with the Flickr photos change with the distance between the user's home location and the location where the photo is taken. In our exploratory analysis "affective" and "relativ" words and their multiplicative interaction show correlations with this distance. These initial findings help us to have a better understanding of online social phenomena related to the expression of emotions and sharing information. At the same time, this might have some indirect implications to understand the insight of impression management in online communities.