Entry #7: The Hashtag

Hashtags originated to be helpful but have since plagued more areas of society than originally intended. The concept is great: Create a symbol that will link posts of the same topic from multiple users of social media. So anyone talking about dogs, for example, can post something and put #dogs into their post so that others can find what they had to say on the topic of dogs. Unfortunately, this is another one of the products of the internet that has bled its way into every day life. 

Realistically, though, hashtags aren't necessary for most of the situations they're used in. Sure, they've helped people and certain causes gain enough attention for some change to happen but a large percentage of hashtag users look like this: 

And that is the problem. On top of that, there are people who even verbalize their hashtagging in speech. Many people were alarmed and disgusted when people started saying text speech like 'omg' or 'lol' out loud but not enough people are having a crisis over the hashtag problem. Hashtags have become such a popular thing that many kids don't even know what the symbol is aside from a hashtag. 

I work in different band classrooms in the Peoria Unified School District and the lesson that I now dread teaching is the lesson about key signatures. Why? The hashtag. In music, the very symbol that has taken popular culture by storm is used to depict a sharp note. Depending on the teacher I'm working with, we've had to put a ban on the word hashtag once students enter the band room. Without that ban, we ask students what the symbol is and instead of waiting to be taught, providing a possible educated guess (because we usually teach flat signs first), or knowledge gained elsewhere (like piano lessons in most cases), students all shout "that's a hashtag". 

Maybe I'm too anti-trend for all of this nonsense or maybe I'm just mentally an old person. Either way, the growing popularity of hashtags is beyond frustrating for me and hopefully others like me (that are preferably closer to my age than my parents). I can accept that there are instances where they're good and the intentions are only to help/raise awareness like #PrayForParis which went around last year after the terrorist attack on Paris or the many others that supported causes that needed more public attention. But I don't hashtag and I won't. To me, hashtags seem just as pointless as half of the other attention-seeky things we do on the internet, like blogs. Unfortunately, society has changed to a point that if it is not on the internet and becoming viral, people don't care or notice. 

Regardless, hashtags shouldn't become a culture and there are too many people abusing them on a daily basis. If you're worried that you're part of the problem, here's a nice list of the types of hashtag abusers for you to reference.