Scholarly attention to hashtagging on social media sites has focused on their catagorization affordances. Grounded in the literature on online identity, this article examines how Tumblr users tactically use hashtagging architecture for publicity and privacy in self-expression. The analysis is based on Tumblr posts and their corresponding hashtags, combined with text-based, synchronous interviews with users. We find that participants use hashtags as a form of intimate expression, offering “secret whisper” spaces. Participants acknowledged a distinction between these spaces of intimacy and the more conventional space of the post. Extending on Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, we argue that this intimacy practice is a form of stage whispering, which is neither front- nor backstage, but implies and assumes intimacy while on the stage, as an actor might imply and assume intimacy stage whispering to her audience.

学术界对社交媒体网站上的话题标签的关注集中在它们的分类可供性上。本文以在线身份相关文献为基础，探讨了 Tumblr 用户如何策略性地使用标签架构来进行自我表达的宣传和隐私。该分析基于 Tumblr 帖子及其相应的主题标签，并结合基于文本的用户同步采访。我们发现参与者使用主题标签作为亲密表达的一种形式，提供“秘密耳语”空间。参与者承认这些亲密空间与更传统的职位空间之间的区别。延续戈夫曼的戏剧手法，我们认为这种亲密练习是一种舞台窃窃私语，既不是前台也不是后台，而是在舞台上暗示和假设亲密，