The online and social media tidal wave known as Twitter has spread microblogging far and wide and with it contextual clues known as hashtags. A hashtag is a form of metadata preceded by the symbol #. Metadata is a fancy word for a tag, of which there is more than one type. Hashtags in particular express the content of a given message. This was originally meant to be helpful on sites such as Twitter, where messages are limited to one hundred and forty characters or less. This trendy phenomenon has become immensely common not only on Twitter but also on such sites as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube. Hashtags have recently diffused through oral chitchat as well. Wikipedia contains lengthy historical information on the subject. According to this site, the hashtag piggybacked to popularity through Twitter, but its origin lies farther back on the technological timeline when it was used in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks to label groups and topics.By placing a hashtag before, in, or after a message, a user can attribute that message to any number of relevant categories and concepts. Wikipedia states, “In a tagging system, there are an unlimited number of ways to classify an item, and there is no ‘wrong’ choice. Instead of belonging to one category, an item may have several different tags.” A large number of tags placed as postscripts (meaning they come after the message, as opposed to before or within) is the most common form of tagging on Twitter. This brings up the question of whether the content of the message is being expressed through the hashtags, or whether the hashtags in their diversity and quantity carry the content themselves. Tarryn Russon, a sophomore in psychology from California, commented, “People put way too many hashtags on what they’ve already said. I don’t really use them unless it’s sarcastically.”The most prevalent of hashtag humor stems from the show “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” aired on NBC. Fallon recently churned out a comedic skit in which he and Justin Timberlake overuse the hashtag in a verbal conversation and are told to shut up by an annoyed Questlove (drummer of the band The Roots), who enters the scene at the very end. “Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake are hilarious,” said Chase Beal, junior in marine biology from Utah, commenting on the skit. “But the video still brings up the problem of the oversimplification of the English language.” Beal said he is convinced there is a definite lack of eloquence in language commonly written and spoken by recent generations of Americans. Fallon also features a segment called latenight #hashtags, in which he reads out the Twitter responses to a hashtag tweeted by him earlier in the day. For example, responses are read to such hashtags as #MyRoommateIsWeird, #BeachFail, #ItsSoHot, and #FakeJayZLyrics. Often the featured hashtag elicits so many responses from Fallon fans that it becomes a worldwide trending topic in less than half an hour.Another purpose of the hashtag includes acting as a beacon in order for users to “follow” the subject or put it on a list for other microbloggers to find. James Constantino, a freshman in Biology from California, explained, “I use hashtags to keep up on music artists and videogames. They’re helpful because through them I’m able to find people with my same interests.” Used for the purpose of sarcasm, common interest, or expressing content, the widespread use of the hashtag is silently dominating the arena of social media. This is reinforced by the fact that an average of five hundred million messages per day are sent worldwide—and that’s just on Twitter.
Writer: Hannah Packard ~ Multimedia Journalist
