In defense of hashtags.

So there’s this video going around about how ridiculous we sound when we talk in hashtags. To be fair, I haven’t watched it, and it may be hilarious. If it were just the video, I probably would not be writing this blog post, because it’s a comedy sketch thing I’m pretty certain, and likely not meant to be ‘serious’. But the video reminds me of the dozens of times I’ve seen people hating on hashtags.

And today as I was hashtagging posts on Tumblr, it kind of came to me WHY I don’t get the hashtag hate.

Hashtags are a metadata tag. When I use a hashtag on Twitter, or Tumblr, or Instagram, or Facebook, I am saying something about what that post is about. It’s my label – it’s an easy way for me (when I want to) to look back on all of the things I’ve said about that particular topic*. Thus when I use #cutecubs on Instagram, it’s a picture of my Boyo and I can easily go back and see all of the images with Boyo on my Instagram. When I use a hashtag like #Dana Scully on Tumblr, I’m allowing myself to go back and see all of my posts about Dana Scully AND additionally because my Tumblr is public, I’m adding to the ability of someone else who is interested in posts about Dana Scully to find that post.

Same thing with Twitter, and Facebook has finally started allowing hashtags as well, so when I specifically hashtag something on Facebook, it now works there. (As opposed to before when hashtags would show up mainly as a result of me posting across several social media platforms some of which utilized hashtags even though Facebook did not.)

Maybe this makes more sense to me because I’m a librarian, but hello, Metadata is USEFUL. Metadata is a way of organizing knowledge and information so that you can get to it all in one place. Hashtags are ONE way of doing that. As a librarian I use metadata on a regular basis. I would FAR rather search an index like Academic Search Premier that has taken the time to give metadata (including formalized subject vocabulary and author supplied keywords, hello academic hash tags!) to their contents, than something like JSTOR where there is literally just full-text and luck of the draw – no metadata available.

Would it be ridiculous if we talked in Library of Congress Subject Headings every day? (Subject heading subdivisions — Handbooks, manuals, etc.) Yes, absolutely, BUT there in the record of an item you will find Library of Congress Subject Headings. And they are there to provide useful information in grouping and cataloging material not necessarily to be read.

Hashtags are less formalized, but the purpose they serve is the same. It’s grouping and cataloging stuff. And it may seem silly to you to group 140 words together, but it isn’t silly to me, and it isn’t silly to the people who use hashtags to search social media platforms.

So if you dislike hashtags? Don’t use them, but the next time you’re searching for something somewhere and something comes up because of a hashtag, consider that maybe you found that thing because of that little piece of #metadata and you shouldn’t knock them either.

*I admit that sometimes I just go silly on hashtags just to be silly, like for instance I might hash tag this gif set ‘#poop with little knives sticking out of it’, just to amuse myself.