The Hashtag Epidemic

[Geekazoid]

Hi my fellow LTT members,

Have you ever wondered why we started using hashtags so much in recent times? Where did this all start from? To me, it seems crazy that for what was just a pretty much ignored symbol on a phone or keyboard has now been pretty much used everywhere. We see companies using it and people even using hashtags in their everyday vocabulary. It seems kinda odd in a way as you wouldn't go around saying any other symbol. Yet this "#" has gained so much popularity that it's pretty much everywhere. It's quite crazy in my opinion. What did we use before hashtags, really? They were initially started to more easily catagorise things and now they're being used for so much more than that. There's some things we will never quite understand and I think the overuse of this hashtaging is definitly one of those things.

To further explain this whole hashtag epidemic I've found an article that gives more indepth info about it. I think you'll find it somewhat interesting to see where all this business started from. It really is quite interesting. The article question is "How did the hashtag go from a neglected computer key to a part of everyday conversation?". I've included the link to this article below. :rolleyes:

Site: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/how-did-the-hashtag-go-from-a-neglected-computer-key-to-a-part-of-everyday-conversation-8552288.html

[Flight1sim]

#cool_i_guess (is that allowd?)

[minimoose]

#hashtagepidemic

[xox]

inb4 hashtag responses

 

Spoke too soon

Edited November 1, 2014 by tomlambert01

[bob345]

#hashgate

[TheKDub]

#PCMasterRace?

[Trik'Stari]

#hashgate

Pass that shit....

[AlwaysFSX]

It started when C# got around and developers thought it would be funny...

 

So not true.

[TheMcSame]

The only other example I can come up with is it was short for number.

 

E.G.

#1 (number one)

#2 pencil (number-two pencil)

[Anthony10]

this is news?

[Victorious Secret]

#ThisIsNotFuckingNews

[bob345]

i wonder how many people still think of # as the pound sign

[rmac52]

I always assumed it was twitters fault.

[iAsuno]

I always assumed it was twitters fault.

Same here.

[Geekazoid]

The only other example I can come up with is it was short for number.

 

E.G.

#1 (number one)

#2 pencil (number-two pencil)

Well, I believe that's what its original purpose was.

[_wky]

This hashtag nonsense is infuriating, it's an octothorpe. That's what I've always known it as, not because of school, or parents, but because I wondered what the heck that weird symbol was on the phone when I was younger, so I went to the school

library computers (this was back when PCs were only just becoming affordable from what I remember) and looked it up.

 

The octothorpe has been used by engineers as far as I know when they want to distinguish something to an automated system, just like the asterisk symbol, so that these two symbols, paired with number codes, could be used to control systems over the telephone system.

 

 

I could be wrong but this is what I've thought all my life.

[DigitalHermit]

#include <hashtagepidemic.h> //*.h stands for hashtag

[Geekazoid]

This hashtag nonsense is infuriating.

I feel the same mate. I've usually just used them out of facetiousness.

[Darkman]

i wonder how many people still think of # as the pound sign

Every time in math, "Why are you using the hashtag sign?" What the-are you serious right now? Always happens at the beginning of the year...

[terrytek]

#ReturnOfBendGate

[Tygron]

Ever heard of Twitter? That's why. Why did they start using it? No idea, don't care. And before you say "it's a pound symbol" actually I looked it up once after agreeing with my step brother on the same comment. While that is one of its names the original name for it is the hash symbol. I forget why and I don't feel like looking it up right now. But that's just what it is.

[_wky]

I feel the same mate. I've usually just used out of facetiousness.

I use it too on Twitter.

[Octagoncow]

IDontKnowHowToUseHashtags#

I think it's like emoticons. In a few years it probably won't be as popular and something new will take its place.

[CtW]

#swagyolo420noscopefazeclangabeislove1337h4x0rs

[terrytek]

#swagyolo420noscopefazeclangabeislove1337h4x0rs

ThisIsHowYouUseAHashtagProperly