#EVERYTHING

#Sassy

This summer marks some monumental change for our country on the federal level. The news is filled with hot-buttoned issues, court decisions, and scandals. After eagerly waiting for weeks and months on decisions that affect many of our lives, we finally saw the change many us have wanted for years. Facebook has incorporated hashtags (#s).

Hashtags (#s) have transformed from something weird on Twitter to commonplace in social media. Did I lose you at the word, "hashtag?" If so, read The Cackling Hen's Guide to Twitter immediately. But while hashtag use is on its way to becoming commonplace, so is a nasty side effect: hashtag abuse and overuse.


What started as something to create a subject or common thread on social media is now just out of control. Putting a "#" symbol in front of any word or phrase, let alone a thousand different ones for one post, doesn't make it an appropriate hashtag. In my media convergence class in graduate school, we laughed at Charlie Sheen as he spiraled off the deep end, while publicly showing it on Twitter. His use of hashtags was always our example of what not to do, but unfortunately, more people had exposure to his asinine tweets than my lovely professor, so hashtag absurdity took off. #Winning. #Jokesonus.

#Winning

Twitter aside, the explosion of Instagram and its incorporation of hashtags has made it a prime locale for hashtag abuse. Instagram is a lovely app to take a picture, make it prettier through a variety of filters, and share it with your friends or stalkers. It is also now a prime spot for hashtag overload and just making up words. How about just a caption and one or two hashtags? The trend for many seems to be no normal caption, but rather a list of 50 absurd hashtags that incorporate every facet of a photo that wasn't exciting in the first place. Here's a medley of real life hashtag mess.

"#feelinit#longisland#gaypride2013#pride2013#pride#twerk#winning#vodka#crunk#ny#nycgay#lifestyle#party#love#life#iger#jj#ig#jetsetter#instahub#instaboy#instalike#instagay#instagram#bestoftheday#scruff#boy#islandboy#islandparty#gay#gayman#gayboys#guyswithiphones#guyswithstyle#model#real#fashion#gurl#selfie#monday"

#WHATISTHIS?!

#selfrespect

Is this English anymore? And these aren't all just real examples, they're also common hashtags used by many many people! Putting "insta" in front of a word on Instagram doesn't necessarily make it a thing. #Instalame. Sure, not all of these hashtags are bad. #pride2013 is a great thread to join all pictures taken at pride events around the world this year. But what about #life? Every damn cluckin' picture is technically "life," so what's the point? And I really don't know what some of these abbreviations mean, such as #jj. Stop it. And what's an "instagay?" Someone turned instantly gay in the microwave? #Instawhat?

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a place for funny and ridiculous hashtags. But that's when they're clearly meant to be funny or ridiculous. Someone putting 50 hashtags in a caption is not intending to be funny or ridiculous. They're abusing my ideal vision of social media and the appropriate use of hashtags.

Maybe I should let it go and accept that social media, and life in general, are probably going to evolve in a lot of ways I don't like. But that doesn't mean I need to be quiet about it. #YOLO. #TheCacklingHen. #Instahen.

Would you like to read more on hashtags and selfies? Check out #Selfie Overload!