I was writing a blog the other day when I got a notice that I didn't have enough tags on it.

I was a little dumbfounded by this.. I mean I don't know how many tags to put on my writing. It's all my opinion anyhow, and what may be funny or life enriching to person A may be boring to person B.

Besides, too many tags can mean I'm trying to be too many things to too many people. I've also learned, on this blog, not enough tags means not enough ways to get some body's attention!

So what do these tags do, anyhow? Besides label the works of the blogger in question? Well, they make the blog possibly come up faster in a filtered search for certain kinds of material, and that's all good.

But i see tags as a way of pre-selling some-one's voice, Which is not good, sometimes a person is still searching for his/her voice and putting a tag, or series of tags on a piece can put pressure on a writer to do something or say something that they originally hadn't planned on doing!

Tags also put a writer in a block already! Homogenizing people and ideas for easy sifting and sorting! I believe that's a little unfair to both the writer and the audience.

Writers write because they have a unique way of turning a phrase and they want to share that with whoever will read and give feedback. Writers build audiences based on how well people enjoy what they've read by that particular writer, not by putting a tag on the work and then working around the tag!

Maybe I'm just a little anxious because I'm still finding my voice, and at times I'm not sure what I'll be saying next and am uncomfortable with being put in a box when my thought process isn't done yet. Or maybe I'm rebelling against popular media that tends to make so many copies of something that sells! For instance, Crime shows. I didn't mind "CSI", then we went to Miami, then we went to New York. Then we had "Crossing Jordan". Then we "Law and Order" in all of it's infinite incarnations! (Is the world that evil? And if all these hard working men and women are catching all the perps that they catch? Why isn't the world a safer place?)

How about music? It used to be that musicians and groups had distinct sounds. The O'Jays sounded like ... well.. the O'Jays! The Temptations sounded like... the Temptations! Now you need a scorecard to tell Usher from K-C and Jo-Jo, and all rap sounds suspiciously similar. The lyrics are similar, the attitudes are similar and the listeners behave in a fashion that is similar to what they listen to! (ugh!)

The media works best when original voices are given a chance to be heard, seen, experienced, and that requires taking a chance and not putting a bunch of familiarizing tags on everything!

just a thought or two...