Title: Facebook Photo Tagging Culture and Practices Among Digital Natives

Social Networking Services (SNS) have gained immense popularity in developing countries like India, where digital natives are actively communicating on these platforms. Understanding the interaction between technology systems and digital natives, and proposing guidelines and recommendations for the development of better systems is highly valuable. Prior research examining users’ motivations and actual usage of photo tagging systems is limited, and predominately focused on Flickr and adult users. In order to understand in detail why, how, and with whom users tag digital photos on Facebook, a qualitative essaybased exploratory study is organized with 67 digital natives in India. The study aims to build understanding of the various gratifications, motivations, experiences, and practices associated with Facebook photo tagging, focusing on technologically savvy Indian digital natives. Our results reveal that photo tagging practices by digital natives vary substantially, especially among gender groups. Facebook photo tagging is popular among Indian boys, and they are more willing to embrace and use it. Meanwhile, involvement of Indian girls is considerably limited, as they tend to avoid Facebook photo tagging, mainly due to privacy concerns, as well as social norms and pressures.