This
is such a first-world , 21st century problem, so I don’t expect
everyone to understand it (I love you, mom, will explain what a hashtag is!).
So,
most of us born as Gen-Ys and Millennials probably understand what a hashtag
is. Thanks to Twitter and most recently, Instagram, a hashtag is more than just
a symbol on the landline phone. A hashtag is a way to connect with people all
over the world with the same topic in mind, same thoughts and is a way to
categorise these thoughts and posts for those willing to learn more about a
certain something.
Sadly,
a huge chunk of Internet and social media users are yet to understand how a
hashtag functions. It’s fine if something is new and yet to circulate, but the
usage of hashtags has been around for a while now so you’d think people have
gotten their minds around it. There are certain hashtags that are wrongly done,
irrelevant and sometimes, just plain irritating. Some of these are my personal
opinion and some are based on conversations over coffee with friends. If
somehow you have been committing some of these, don’t feel terrible. It takes a
while to get to it and you’re not necessarily wrong. I could be wrong. Nobody
made me queen of the world. Chill.
1.
#those
#who #hashtag #like #this
Darling,
that’s now how you do it. You may have sentences as captions but pick out the
right verbs and nouns to highlight the essence of the post. Hashtagging that
way is purely a violation of the usage of social media. As said above, hashtags
categorise thoughts, so who looks for thoughts using the word #who? Or #this?
What do you expect to see when using those words?
For
instance, the hashtag #sunshine is often correlated to a picture of the beach,
garden, anywhere bright where the sun actually shines. If you caption
sentences, you can do these:
#beautiful
#sunset today at the #beach
or
#beautifulsunset
today at the #beach
See
what I did there? Click on #beach and you’ll obviously get pictures of, um,
hmmm, uhhh, beaches?!
2.
Irrelevant
hashtags
Now
this is more than making mistakes. This is simply annoying. I use hashtags to
look out for networking and community building so as someone in the fitness
industry, I look out for #YogyakartaGym, #FitnessYogya, #MuscleBuilding to
lookout for people in the same field to connect with. But often, I find people
who hashtag words that HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION to the pictures. Why?
Like, why? You upload a picture of your cute dog and then caption #StarbucksIndonesia.
I am serious, by the way, this has happened. Unless your dog is drinking
coffee, or has a Starbucks dog outfit, there is no reason for that hashtag.
Learn to use, not abuse.
3.
Over
hashtagging
I
don’t think there are rules per se about the number of hashtags you’re allowed
to use in a post but I think there’s gotta be a personal limit. Some people go
on and on in their hashtags. I mean, how many words can there be in a picture?
Please do not take the literal meaning of “a picture is worth a thousand
words”. A picture of your selfie is most welcomed but not with these
#selfie
#happyme #happyday #Sunday #jakarta #lipstick #maccosmetics #prettygirl
#champagne #salmon #protein #lovefood #happygirlsaretheprettiest #dietwhatdiet
#cheatday #gluttony #mygirls #friendsforever #dinnerwithgirls #icecream #funday
#followforfollow #F4F #like4like OKAY STAAAAHHHHPPPP IT!
Draw
the line, somewhere. Just, somewhere.
4.
Misspelling
hashtags
I’m a
total mistyping victim, ironic that I’m a bit of a grammar nazi. So I totally
get this pain. But be careful while hashtagging, misspelling your hashtag means
that other people probably don’t get what you mean, cannot reach you, or simply
think you’re a bad typist. Proofread and do it again.
5.
Using
punctuations
In
relation to being a grammar nazi, it definitely feels odd to eliminate
punctuations while hashtagging hashtags do not recognize punctuations! If you
want to hashtag, for example, “don’t mess with me”, you’ll have to hashtag it
as #dontmesswithme because if you hashtag #don’tmesswith me, the only clickable
hashtag with me #don because the words after the punctuation will be cut off. It’s
just how it works, okay?
6.
#blessed
Yeah, a lot of people use #blessed as a
hashtag. I actually don’t have an issue because you should feel the gratitude
of having a great life, yes? But anyway, #blessed is the new taboo in Instagram,
kind of like a humble brag, except that it’s not so humble. In the spirit of
social media usage independence, go ahead and use the hashtag. But read the
following excerpt from NY Times,
“Calling something “blessed”
has become the go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment
while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success
(without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy. ‘Blessed’ is used now where in the past one might have said
‘lucky,’ said the linguist Deborah Tannen. But what makes these examples
humble-brags is not ‘blessed’ itself but the context: telling the world your
fiancé is the best or that you’ve been invited to do something impressive. Actually
I don’t even see the ‘humble’ in it. I just see ‘brag’ (Bennett, 2014).
7.
#mysisterisbetterthanyours
#mymotherisbetterthanyours
Actually
this goes beyond a hashtag. This also goes for captions like “my sister >
your sister”. Wow, congratulations for implementing the correct understanding
of “greater than” signage. You now have the intellectual ability of a fifth
grader.
These
annoy the living hell out of me. Simply because, of course your sister is
better than mine, for you, that is. And of course you have a brother who’s greater
than mine, for you too! You don’t need to state the obvious. If you say you use
for it fun, well that’s your choice but I don’t understand it. If you use it to
genuinely downgrade everyone else’s siblings, you’re a douche. In one of my
social media understanding courses, my professor quotes “those who are insecure
find it vital to compare lives with others. It’s funny. My friend receives some
bagels from his sibling and suddenly, MY brother becomes a bad brother for NOT
sending me some”. Couldn’t agree more.
That’s
it, folks. Now, I’m going to scroll way down to my oldest Instagram photos to
see how many hashtags abuses have I made. Hope you enjoyed this post and
learned a little something about hashtags! I’d say XOXO but for the sake of
this post, let me say #O#O JJJ
No comments:
Post a Comment