Explain hashtags to me

[DawnM]

like I am your 80 year old Grandma in a rocking chair and holding knitting needles.

 

I don't get them, don't understand their use, and have no idea what they really are.

 

I just saw a commercial that mentioned them.

 

Dawn

[Reflections]

like I am your 80 year old Grandma in a rocking chair and holding knitting needles.

 

I don't get them, don't understand their use, and have no idea what they really are.

 

I just saw a commercial that mentioned them.

 

Dawn

 With her friend sitting next to her who's still chuckling about phones without cords...

 

(Thanks for asking this!)

[myfunnybunch]

I am crawling out from under my rock to sit next to you. Pass the knitting needles and some yarn, please.

[Forget-Me-Not]

They're similar to what the tags used to be here on the forums before the upgrade.  The hashtag makes a link, and you can then click that link and see everything else that has the same "tag", whether it's tweets on Twitter, pins on Pinterest, or status updates on Facebook. 

 

And, similarly to the old tagging system here on the forums, people also use them to be snarky/funny.  They have their uses, but mostly I despise them because I'm never, ever gonna do a search for the tags in question.  For example, a cooking blog I follow used #tenpointsformom when she put up a recipe for whole wheat zucchini waffles the other day.  Cute?  Sure.  Am I ever going to search for THAT phrase?  Nope (says the lady who tagged "no cupcake left behind" in the Great Cupcake Kerfuffle of 2012 :D). 

 

 

[Moxie]

Think of a spiderweb. One string of the web is about blue yarn #blue #yarn. I can click on either hash tag and connects to a different string--all about yarn or all about blue. So, everything is connected.

 

Or, some are just cute. #explaininghashtagstograndma.

[SpecialClassical]

A friend of mine seems to use them to explain her FB posts and pics. I've counted up to 14 on one post and often you have to read them or you don't totally understand what she wants to say. As the person above said, they are supposed to link you to a category, but the likelihood of her having more that one item in most categories is low. So if you see them like I've described I think you can assume they are being misused/overused.

[kwickimom]

Most people are just using them to express short thoughts or to be cute. #jumponthebandwagon #hashtagsrock  :tongue_smilie:

[Catwoman]

Most people are just using them to express short thoughts or to be cute. #jumponthebandwagon #hashtagsrock :tongue_smilie:

In many cases, I consider them more annoying than cute.

 

And sometimes they make no sense at all, and it makes me wonder if the person is #acompletemoron or #functionallyilliterate. ;)

 

But I'm probably just in the old-fashioned minority of people who believes that, every now and then, it's a nice idea to type out an entire thought in a complete sentence.

 

And hashtags look dopey, too, particularly when they are overused to the degree I'm seeing right now.

[MomtoCandJ]

A complete annoyance :) (says person who can't knit but will join with her crochet hook)

[dakarimom5]

So I guess I'm a grandma too, but I'll take my yarn with a crochet hook. Can someone please tell me why it is called a hash tag? It used to be the number sign or the pound sign.

[MollyAnn]

So I guess I'm a grandma too, but I'll take my yarn with a crochet hook. Can someone please tell me why it is called a hash tag? It used to be the number sign or the pound sign.

DD and I have good humored arguements over what they are called. I insist they are pound signs and she calls them hash tags. She even further likes to annoy me by holding up both hands in a number two and crossing them as she says "hash tag"

 

She has a friend that lives in a gated community and when we go to pick up or drop off I am told the gate combo is "hash tag 1 2 3 4" I beat my head on the steering wheel.

 

When she is feeling particularly feisty and really wants to annoy me she holds up the hand hash tag and says "hash tag Ilinois" pronouncing the (s) I really have to breathe deep on that one.

[sewingmama]

I think I must be great-grandma with dementia in this conversation.....even after reading the explanation I don't get it :)

 

What does #tenpointsformom have to do with cooking waffles ??

 

My friends on Facebook use # sometimes and I don't get what they mean lol.

[Heather in Neverland]

They really annoy me though I have no rational explanation as to why. :)

[cuckoomamma]

You all make me feel so much better.  I find them so distracting in a FB update.  One person I know strings way more hashtags in her update than words.  They definitely make me grumpy!

[Kathryn]

Joining the club. I'm annoyed by a lot of new Internet fads.

[Plink]

Hashtags are a way to group conversations on Twitter. You can search by hashtag and then follow an entire event or idea. Like the Muppets? Try #muppetfan. Prefer crochet to knitting? Type #yarnhookers (totally just made those up btw)

 

Facebook tried to jump on the band wagon, but it hasn't really been used in the same way. It is more of a way to be cute, or an obvious sign that people are posting to both Twitter and FB at the same time.

[Chris in VA]

I think I must be great-grandma with dementia in this conversation.....even after reading the explanation I don't get it :)

 

What does #tenpointsformom have to do with cooking waffles ??

 

My friends on Facebook use # sometimes and I don't get what they mean lol.

It's just a comment-- a snarky or funny or sarcastic aside, like Yay me!

I use hash tags to that effect sometimes, because I write like I talk, adding parenthetical comment to nearly everything. Bad habit. (Now I could put something like "So sue me" or "Get over it" with a hash tag, if I were going to use a ht that way.)

Lk

[Halftime Hope]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong since I don't use Twitter, but I think hashtags started with Twitter.  They were a way of tagging (like we used to have here on the WTM boards) tweets, so that people searching for tweets (often opinions) about a particular subject could find all the things people were thinking or saying about that subject.  

 

The use of the number sign/pound sign, which somewhere along the way was also called a hash mark, is the signifier some programmer chose to signal to the computer, "Heads up!  The person is no longer opining, they've classified their thought as belonging to xxxxx category, and they want it to be searchable using this keyword (tag)."    Businesses and organizations sometimes use hashtags as a publicity tool.  For example, dd works at a tiny, seasonal food establishment, and they use it as a way of spreading news about the events they are working, in addition to their normal base location hours, so that "fans" of their product know where to find it.  They use their business name as the tag, with the hash mark in front of it.  So if someone searches for that hashtag, they can find out exactly where the business is selling the product that weekend. 

 

People started using hashtags on Facebook, and perhaps other places as a way of saying in a couple of words, #thisishowIfeel.   It was a form of shorthand, because until a couple of weeks ago, hashtags were not searchable on FB.   For the oldtimers among us, remember how we used to say in the (?) early 90s, "Color me ________!"  Fill in the emotion, such as "Color me embarrassed!"  after saying something dumb.  If you remember that shorthand, that's the way people had been using hashtags on FB. 

 

As an example, using the "tenpointsformom hashtag cited above, I'd guess the OP was congratulating herself for baking something relatively healthy for her family:  "Color me creative/proud of myself."       #feelinglikeabonafidehomemaker     :001_cool:

 

Now that FB has searchable hashtags, I think they'll be searchable across Twitter, FB, maybe Google+, but I'm not sure.  I'm not a fan of having all my online identities connected, and I hate having my hashtag usage be searchable--small and infrequent though it may be--so I'm bucking the trend and putting the hash mark at the end of my words, if I use one at all.  Some of my FB friends have picked up on my anti-HT trend and are doing it, too.  LOL!

[PrincessMommy]

I'm finding that my kids are using the word "hashtag" as part of their conversations... not dissimilar to the way the teen girls used  "like" back in the 80's.   It doesn't really make much sense to me, except that I think it's a way of making an emphasis

 

I hope it disappears soon because it's like hashtag ridiculous.  ;)

[Halftime Hope]

I'm finding that my kids are using the word "hashtag" as part of their conversations... not dissimilar to the way the teen girls used  "like" back in the 80's.   It doesn't really make much sense to me, except that I think it's a way of making an emphasis

 

I hope it disappears soon because it's like hashtag ridiculous.  ;)

 

Please, God, do not let that spread to this area.

[OhanaBee]

Well let me pull up my rocking chair next to y'all.  I do not understand them.  Or maybe I sort of understand "hash tags" but don't appreciate them [the real truth - according to my 18yo].  My dh's cousin uses them all the time on FB and it drives me nuts.  And they don't connect to anything!  I think they're just her way of making a point.

 

#gettingonmylastnerve #aboutreadytoblockher #whyisthissodangpopular

 

Like that.

[DawnM]

That is how it was used in the commercial. She was texting a friend and kept saying, "Hashtag" and then continued the conversation.

 

It was a car commercial and I don't remember which one it was, but will note it if I see it again (or should I say I will hashtag it?) I am probably still not saying it right.

 

Dawn

 

 

I'm finding that my kids are using the word "hashtag" as part of their conversations... not dissimilar to the way the teen girls used  "like" back in the 80's.   It doesn't really make much sense to me, except that I think it's a way of making an emphasis

 

I hope it disappears soon because it's like hashtag ridiculous.  ;)

[Halftime Hope]

Well let me pull up my rocking chair next to y'all.  I do not understand them.  Or maybe I sort of understand "hash tags" but don't appreciate them [the real truth - according to my 18yo].  My dh's cousin uses them all the time on FB and it drives me nuts.  And they don't connect to anything!  I think they're just her way of making a point.

 

#gettingonmylastnerve #aboutreadytoblockher #whyisthissodangpopular

 

Like that.

 

#hitthenailonthehead   #perceptive18yearold  

 

#feelingoutdatedarewe? 

 

#thiscouldgoonandon  

 

#I'mhavingtoomuchfun  

 

#avoidingbillpaying,  #I'llquitnow 

[Word Nerd]

I like them and find them useful and often funny. They're especially fun in Twitter hashtag games, which I won't bother to explain since so many of you loathe hashtags anyway. ;)

[Moxie]

I like hashtags. I think that, in the right hands, they can be witty are often times useful. They are a quick way to convey a point.

 

"My son passed his black belt test" #workedforyears #stressedoutMom

 

Now you know a lot more about the situation.

[GSOchristie]

A friend of mine seems to use them to explain her FB posts and pics. I've counted up to 14 on one post and often you have to read them or you don't totally understand what she wants to say. As the person above said, they are supposed to link you to a category, but the likelihood of her having more that one item in most categories is low. So if you see them like I've described I think you can assume they are being misused/overused.

I have a friend that has always used them on fb, even before they worked there :/. She will post 10 pictures with 10 hashtags each and misspell 3 of them. I have almost hidden her from my feed because it drives me crazy.

[Caroline]

I have a friend whose son has kidney disease. A TV show from MTV was having a contest to raise money for his transplant and to help find a donor. For a few hours one evening, any twitter post that had the proper hashtag #saverichard was counted. Based on how many tweets with that hashtag people tweeted, money was donated from a few sources. The hashtags are used to track trending. So that night #saverichard trended first in the area.

 

I am going to participate in a twitter chat tomorrow afternoon with an author and the students at my school who all read a book. We will connect with the proper hashtag.

 

I think they started showing up in Facebook because people link their Facebook account to their twitter account. If they put it on twitter, it showed up on Facebook.

 

 

Edited because I had the wrong organ in the first paragraph.

[Kathryn]

I like hashtags. I think that, in the right hands, they can be witty are often times useful. They are a quick way to convey a point.

 

"My son passed his black belt test" #workedforyears #stressedoutMom

 

Now you know a lot more about the situation.

What's wrong with: "After years of work, my son passes his black belt test today. I was one stressed mom!"

[KungFuPanda]

I used Twitter in the beginning of twitter. You had 140 characters to express your thoughts. As Twitter evolved, you could add pictures and sort tweets, and other things. They added hashtags so you could label your tweets/posts for future searching. One way to find all of the tweets in a particular topic was to search the hashtag. (#knitting)

 

However, hashtags evolved to be more about humoring the current reader than making it easy for future readers to find. It became almost like a stage whisper. It turned from this:

 

I'm knitting with my grandmother. #knitting

 

To this:

 

I'm knitting with my grandmother. #shootmenow

 

I think hashtags dropped to Facebook when Twitter users set up their accounts so that they could type one post and update all of their social media sites at once.

 

"I am eating pie. #pie"

 

Eventually, Facebook users who didn't use twitter got used to seeing hashtags and began using them too even though they're not tied to a search feature on Facebook.

 

Remember the old boards where you could list the topic for searches, but it turned into hilarity so much so that a sticky was added to keep us in line and remind us of the proper use? THAT'S how hashtags came to be. #boundtohappen #naturalorderofthings #Texasgetseverythinglast #signofendtimes #justkeepknitting

[ChristusG]

So hashtags just allow me to see the tweets of others who are talking about the same thing?

 

I don't really see a use for them because if I mention that "I'm watching #onceuponatime right now....I don't care to see others chatting about the fact that they are watching it too. Seems pointless to me....and I'm definitely not behind technologically.

[Moxie]

What's wrong with: "After years of work, my son passes his black belt test today. I was one stressed mom!"

Twitter has a limit of 140 characters so hashtags get the idea across with fewer letter usually.

[KungFuPanda]

So hashtags just allow me to see the tweets of others who are talking about the same thing?

I don't really see a use for them because if I mention that "I'm watching #onceuponatime right now....I don't care to see others chatting about the fact that they are watching it too. Seems pointless to me....and I'm definitely not behind technologically.

It might be pointless if you're not interested in what people have to say about Once Upon A Time. The point of it is to search for something that DOES interest you. It's not always frivolous or snarky. Try searching #arabspring for an example of how the feature can be of real use. Any breaking news will likely have a tag so you can filter only those posts and skip reading about what people are watching on TV. Today the topic #rollingstone will lead you to what people think about Rolling Stone magazine putting the Boston Marathon bomber on their cover.

[SpecialClassical]

So it seems hash tags are used for expression and for linking information. The latter is a great idea. The former is annoying when overdone. (10-14 after one sentence) Like GSO Christie's friend, my friend used them on FB before they did anything. She is my age and was apparently teased by our younger friend about it. :-)

[Samiam]

Just piping in that I hate hashtags too, and I knew the point of them, lol.  Just annoying on FB though.  I actually posted last week that on my FB #goingtotalkandtypeinonlyhashtagtoday ....and then did a bunch of dumb hashtags in that same post....kinda hoped that those on my FB feed would get the point and stop speaking ONLY in #hashtag......they didn't of course...cuz it's kinda clueless to do that in the first place, so I guess it went right over their heads.   One or two, okay, I guess....but the whole FB post being 3,4,5,etc...annoying.

[Kathryn]

Twitter has a limit of 140 characters so hashtags get the idea across with fewer letter usually.

Well, that's another thing I don't get. I don't really understand the point of Twitter or the character limit. It seems to me to encourage text speak, which I cannot stand. I hate having to decipher posts like "we r goin 2 da bch tmrw. #roadtrip" <--- actual post on my Facebook feed.

[Bug's Mom]

#notallknittersareold

#iamnotagrandma

 

;)

[Catwoman]

What's wrong with: "After years of work, my son passes his black belt test today. I was one stressed mom!"

Well, that's another thing I don't get. I don't really understand the point of Twitter or the character limit. It seems to me to encourage text speak, which I cannot stand. I hate having to decipher posts like "we r goin 2 da bch tmrw. #roadtrip" <--- actual post on my Facebook feed.

:iagree:

 

And honestly, people, am I the only one who thinks that Twitter is just one more way for people to make themselves believe that everything they do, and every single trite little thought that pops into their mind, needs to be shared with the world -- and even worse, that they think the world cares about it?

 

We are becoming a society of self-absorbed, over-sharing idiots.

 

I don't care what you watched on TV last night. I don't care what you ate for breakfast this morning. Spare me the picture of the sandwich you're having for lunch. Seriously. You just aren't that fascinating. None of us are so wildly interesting that people should want to see a picture of the bowl of cereal we ate for breakfast or hear that someone cut us off in traffic this morning. Even we shouldn't care about that stuff within about 10 seconds of when it happens, so perhaps that should be a clue that we don't need to immortalize it on Twitter for the entire world to see.

 

And don't even get me started on how people seem to be becoming less and less capable of writing in complete sentences in real life, as a result of being in the habit of texting and tweeting. It's as though many people have completely forgotten how to capitalize, use punctuation, or even to put spaces between words when they type them. I think it's sad, and I don't consider it to be a sign of progress.

 

Sorry. I'm kinda grumpy this morning.

[Alexigail]

I think it's mostly a fad.  They started out as something sort of useful (though I dont' like Twitter anyway).  But to me it seems like people want you to not only read what they're thinking, but to indicate how you should react to it.  We can't just write something anymore - we have to tell people what we're talking about and how to feel.

 

( #youshouldagreewithme, #Ican'twriteclearlyonmyown #i'msocutelookatme)

 

Ok reading over that I realized how annoyed I am with those things!  I'll just dajarimom5 with my yarn and hooks.  :)

[Kathryn]

:iagree:

 

And honestly, people, am I the only one who thinks that Twitter is just one more way for people to make themselves believe that everything they do, and every single trite little thought that pops into their mind, needs to be shared with the world -- and even worse, that they think the world cares about it?

 

We are becoming a society of self-absorbed, over-sharing idiots.

 

I don't care what you watched on TV last night. I don't care what you ate for breakfast this morning. Spare me the picture of the sandwich you're having for lunch. Seriously. You just aren't that fascinating. None of us are so wildly interesting that people should want to see a picture of the bowl of cereal we ate for breakfast or hear that someone cut us off in traffic this morning. Even we shouldn't care about that stuff within about 10 seconds of when it happens, so perhaps that should be a clue that we don't need to immortalize it on Twitter for the entire world to see.

 

And don't even get me started on how people seem to be becoming less and less capable of writing in complete sentences in real life, as a result of being in the habit of texting and tweeting. It's as though many people have completely forgotten how to capitalize, use punctuation, or even to put spaces between words when they type them. I think it's sad, and I don't consider it to be a sign of progress.

 

Sorry. I'm kinda grumpy this morning.

I SO agree! I just checked my Facebook wall. In the past few weeks, I've posted a picture of my first new glasses in ten years, a couple of pictures of my kids (like my 3yo dressed in pants, long-sleeves, gloves, boots, and mask in 90+ degree heat), two links to articles I enjoyed, and the picture my 3yo took of DH and I getting (re)married after joining the Orthodox Church. By comparison, I have a friend who's posted that much this morning: picture of her breakfast, checking in at the gym, what an awesome workout she had, a picture of her toenails painted, funny thing her kid said, and a link to some celebrity news.

[nmoira]

Well, that's another thing I don't get. I don't really understand the point of Twitter or the character limit. It seems to me to encourage text speak, which I cannot stand. I hate having to decipher posts like "we r goin 2 da bch tmrw. #roadtrip" <--- actual post on my Facebook feed.

 

Depends who you follow. The ability to communicate something clearly while cutting it down to its barest essence is no mean feat. It's probably not coincidence that the people I enjoy most on Twitter also tend to be compelling writers.

[Moxie]

Well, I'm not on FB so maybe that's why I don't think hash tags are an indication of society's demise??

 

I love Twitter and Instagram. I keep in touch with family far away. I follow a couple comedians I like. I follow some artists who share their new pretty creations. I follow writers I find clever. I follow some politicians I agree with so I stay informed on issues that matter to me. It makes me happy and makes me feel like I've had adult contact on days when I haven't.

[Library Momma]

I think it's mostly a fad.  They started out as something sort of useful (though I dont' like Twitter anyway).  But to me it seems like people want you to not only read what they're thinking, but to indicate how you should react to it.  We can't just write something anymore - we have to tell people what we're talking about and how to feel.

 

 

 

I prefer hash browns  #mmmmhashbrowns

[Moxie]

I prefer hash browns #mmmmhashbrowns

#nomnom

#notpaleo

#righttomyhips

[Word Nerd]

And honestly, people, am I the only one who thinks that Twitter is just one more way for people to make themselves believe that everything they do, and every single trite little thought that pops into their mind, needs to be shared with the world -- and even worse, that they think the world cares about it?

 

 

I just browsed my Twitter feed and don't see even one example of that. It's mostly links to commentary, news stories, and other information along with brief comments or reactions—just as people do every day on this forum. #theironyisnotlostonme

[nmoira]

I just browsed my Twitter feed and don't see even one example of that. It's mostly links to commentary, news stories, and other information along with brief comments or reactions—just as people do every day on this forum. #theironyisnotlostonme

 

Yup. I just finished reading a fantastic interview with Albert Brooks I'd skipped in January (something about that issue of VF ticked me off at the time). 

[Catwoman]

I just browsed my Twitter feed and don't see even one example of that. It's mostly links to commentary, news stories, and other information along with brief comments or reactions—just as people do every day on this forum. #theironyisnotlostonme

Do you have any idea how much easier it would have been for others to read that, if you had put spaces between the words?

 

Sometimes I feel like I need a degree in cryptography to decipher the stupid hashtags.

[Halftime Hope]

_{About the oversharing--two fixes:  1) pick friends whose level of sharing equals yours, and 2) use your FB setting to "censor" the mundane.   I have a bunch of youth group kids (and some adult acquaintances) who friended me, and frankly I like seeing what is going on in their lives *when it is something of import.*   FB allows me to censor their constant wall posts by choosing the categories of posts from each person that are displayed on my feed.   Regarding my attitude about the constant posting:  I cut teens a lot of slack, b/c their parents have not taken it upon themselves to ensure that the teens are too busy to post ad nauseum.  As the teens grow up, they have less and less time to post, and it tends to work itself out.}

[Word Nerd]

Do you have any idea how much easier it would have been for others to read that, if you had put spaces between the words?

 

 

It was a joke. Should've added a winking smiley.

[mom2scouts]

I generally don't mind hashtags, but someone posted on FB this morning and nine out of ten words were hashtags. It's just annoying.

[DragonFaerie]

I don't read hashtags.  It's a pain in the butt.  If you want to say something, just spell and type it correctly for Pete's sake!  It's really not that hard.  If you don't care enough to type it legibly, I don't care enough to read it.  (Color me grumpy today, too. LOL)