The video attached was a comedy skit made by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake in September 2013. The two celebrities show the annoyance and over use of hashtags on social media networks today. In this skit they have a two minute conversation using #hashtag after #hashtag after #hashtag to show the annoyance of text language on social media today.
Hashtags have stepped away from the 140-characters-or-less microblogging platform- Twitter, and have become the new cultural shorthand on social networking sites such as Facebook, Tout, identi.ca, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, finding their way into chat windows, e-mail and even face-to-face conversations.
But not only have hashtags become apart of peer-to-peer conversation, but hashtags have emerged into the business world as well. Mass broadcast media firms have started to employ hashtags of a means of keeping up-to-date with various trends.
For instance, various television channels promote themselves through “branded” hashtag bugs. This is used as a means of promoting a backchannel of online side-discussion before, during and after an episode broadcast. Hashtag bugs appear on either corner of the screen, or they may appear at the end of an advertisement for instance.
Hashtags have also been employed into promotions and event coordination, as well as being used for customer complaints in various business sectors.
This ever growing use of short message language, and hashtags has definitely had an impact on my life, and I can see the change around me in friends lives, business practices, and more.
How do you feel text language on social media is affecting our language and the way we speak to one another, as well as work related practices?
