Hashtag Grumble Grumble

Every good struggle needs a slogan. Civil Rights, Womens Sufferage, etc. It helps to summarize what your cause stands for or is fighting for. It's a short introduction to the struggle for beginners and a rally cry. 5440 or Fight. Remember theAlamo. Yes We Can. Where's the Beef? Why not us?

With the advent of social media these slogans have become broader and deeper rally cries. News stories that break in third world countries are posted and hashtagged to make it easier to follow as things develop. Social movements are tagged so like minded people can get involved with the movement and keep up with what is happening. Even brands get tagged so advertisers can follow what is being said about that particular brand. Hashtags serve a purpose in that they help to catalog and categorize the vast and sprawling information on social media sites. They serve a purpose.

#yum#foodporn#lunch#sohungry that you just tagged that selfie of you and your sushi with serves no purpose what so ever. The paragraph of hashtags that you posted with that blurry picture of the sunset may tell some sort of story, but it takes more effort to read than a Thomas Piketty economics book. It doesn't help and in fact is may actually do damage to the english language.

When you condense entire ideas and thoughts down to a few words proceeded by a hashtag you begin to circumvent language. Don't waste time using the words you want to say, use a hashtag people will recognize and maybe you'll get a few more likes or retweets. If you take the time to snap a picture, post it on the internet, and even hashtag the life out of it; spend a few more moments to, instead, write some nice words and share your thoughts. Most of us are capable of independent thought, why not express it and share it. I, for one, would find it more interesting than one more selfie that looks exactly like the last twenty you posted only in a different location.

When George Orwell wrote his futuristic dystopian novel 1984 he included an idea called Newspeak. It was an effort by the government to dilute and simplify language down to short phrases for larger concepts, to make conversations more efficient less prone to confusion. It was also a way to keep people from developing more complex ideas that may cause them to question the powers that be. I don't think for one second that social media and hashtags specifically are some sort of government conspiracy, however the paralles between the use of hashtags and Newspeak are eerie and I'm not the first one to come to this conclusion either.

I'm sure I sound like a grumpy old man complaining about “kids these days” and that may be true, but my distaste for hashtags is part serious and part fun. There should always be people who point out the absurdity of popular things, much like pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. I'm sure that my distaste for social media will be pointed out again and again on all the social media sites I post to. Hashtag abuse is part of a larger and more serious problem: the willful dumbing down of society.  

Facebook is confusing...

Find us on Facebook at Hashtag Rebellion. I know it doesn't make much sense, but just go with it for now. This will be fun.

Twitter is not poetry

Poetry is good for you. It's a form of writing that uses less to say more; it's an economy of words. Feeling and emotions poured out on paper in carefully chosen words, beautiful in their simplicity, are left for the reader to interpret and decipher. It's and ancient form of expression.

In modern times, with social networking sites like Twitter allowing only 140 characters to get a thought across, one would think that it may make people and the world more poetic, or at least more careful of the words they use. Sadly, no. Instead we get hashtags.

Every generation has it's vernacular and slang. Regions have dialect or colloquialisms. These help to differentiate and define groups; to create an identity. The scourge of social media and specifically Twitter, has given the world a large platform from which to speak. It's a platform so full and crowded and with everyone all speaking at once, that most things get lost in the constant drone of voices. The time frame we have for being noticed or heard is so small that we have to find ways to get more complex or long winded ideas out faster. Enter the hashtag.

With a hashtag people are able to sum up entire concepts or groups with as few characters as possible. #BringBackOurGirls implies that you support and want the return of the Nigerian school girls kidnapped for attending school. #BringbackourSonics implies that you are a die hard basketball fan and want the Super Sonics returned to Seattle. #bff when attached to picture implies that your best friend for life is also in the picture and the person you most enjoy being with, never mind where you are or what you're doing, that will be hashtagged as well.

The hashtag conveys a message without the use of all those sloppy words that get in the way of using more hashtags. They serve a purpose, however. When a user is limited to only 140 characters to say things, there needs to be a way to condense thought down to an easily read slogan. No one takes the time to read anything anymore so why take the time to write anything if it's not going to read in the first place?

In fact, most probably wouldn't bother reading this seemingly long winded article that could easily be summed up with a hashtag such as #nomorehashtags or #hashtagnewspeak. Some of us still enjoy the old fashioned art of language. I'm sure our English teachers would all cry a little if they knew how little we used what they taught us. Never mind the fact that most adults can't properly use they're/their/there or your/you're, but it seems we've given up altogether on writing when the deepest things we can think of are #goodtimes.

Poetry is the economic use of words to get complex concepts across, done with beauty and art, writing is less stingy with the words but no less beautiful or artistic. Hashtags are just plain lazy language.