Hash(un)tag

Hash(un)tag

The link above lists seven types of hashtag abusers, which one are you?

I seldom use hashtags. Not for any “noble” “holier-than-thou” reason; I was (still am) just too lazy to tag what I post online. I figured, if my stuff gets seen/read, then fine. If not, then fine too. Digital (not biological) determination by way of social media. Survival of the digital fittest. I do use it from time to time when I’m trying to be funny, sarcastic or self-deprecating, but it was just such a bother that most of the time, I don’t. I did think hashtagging got out of hand though when I started seeing hashtags like #fun and #food in posts.

Don’t get me wrong. Used sparingly and efficiently, a hashtag is useful for clariying tone, injecting subtext, playfuling rejiggering text, as the article states — or in my case, directing sarcasm (at myself) and attempting to be ironic. To quote the article, which quotes writer Slate deputy editor Julia Turner, “[T]he hashtag gives the writer the opportunity to comment on his own emotional state, to sarcastically undercut his own tweet, to construct an extra layer of irony, to offer a flash of evocative imagery or to deliver metaphors with striking economy.”

But the article leaves us with a question: “But is [the hashtag] too much of a cheat? A gimmick that stops us from going deeper, thinking harder, or expressing ourselves more fully and clearly?” You tell me.

[image from article in nymag.com]
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