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Brian Velez, LV Life Editor
I wish the Soviet Union still existed and the communists forced people to ration their hashtags.
Hashtags on social media are used to connect people but some people use hashtags all the time.
Hashtags work like the index of a book, allowing people to find conversations or comments on some social media by using specific words. A person may enter #NewYork in the search bar of twitter or Instagram, and comments and pictures of all five boroughs will appear in the feed.
Thankfully, Twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet, forcing users to economize their attention seeking tool.
My grievance is directed at improper hashtag users on Instagram and Facebook. Placing a paragraph of hashtags below a picture is ridiculous.
I saw a picture on Instagram tagged with the random words; swag, epic, yummy, morning, orange, florida, awesome, OMG – it was for a picture of toast and orange juice.
Toast and orange juice are not epic nor swag and neither is it such a complete nutritious breakfast to call it awesome.
What is an epic breakfast? Eating toast and drinking orange juice in the space shuttle while in outer space, epic.
I understand that as humans, we want attention and for people to admire our amazing comments and pictures since with Instagram we all think we are Ansel Adams, look it up.
But indirectly shoving content down peoples throats and is not the way.
Hashtags on Instagram should be related to the image and not milk every picture of details hoping people will stumble upon it and click the like button or begin following the account.
People who use hashtags would like to see images related to the picture when search results are presented.
For example, if a person is at LAX, takes a picture and posts it on Instagram with #LAX, that makes sense.
Facebook, oh the people on Facebook. I can only hope that these people are witty enough to use these hashtags to express sarcasm, but I know most do not use it in that manner. Hashtags on Facebook are just words next to a numerical sign that are calling and attracting no one since hashtags on Facebook do not work.
It is not possible to search for hashtags on Facebook yet people continue to use them. I assume because people have seen friends use hashtags on their posts and now they do it thinking it is a new “cool” way of writing posts.
Hashtags just sit there like a word next to a numerical sign calling no one on the Internet.
I am annoyed due to my generations disgusting desire for empty attention. Twelve years ago most people did not have a cell phone. Now a person in Australia can send a picture to a stranger on the other side of the world. While more humans on the planet become more connected the trend of instant gratification and desire for attention seems more prevalent.
Self portraits are taken in bathroom mirrors and Facebook pity parties are held everyday. The desire for attention from strangers is strong.
There is a person all people are familiar with, the attention whore. The attention whore is the person who in class raises their hand to give input on topics they know nothing about. The hashtag has replaced the raising of the hand.
#There #is #no #need #to #hashtag #all #the #words #in #your #post.
Brian Velez, a senior communications major, is LV Life editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by email at brian.velez@laverne.edu.
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