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.