The history of the hashtag is so wild: an ad-hoc folk invention, made official, but now can rarely be used without falling into one of several cringe registers.
Is its fate a necessary consequence of its structure, or an accident that could have been otherwise?
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eg if the hashtag was never given official support, perhaps it wouldn’t have been co-opted by marketers and wannabe thought leaders?
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Some usage (#blessed) seems to be compensating for a lack of “vocal registers” in text, sort of like typing in all lowercase. The hashtag has its own sort of subvocalized pronounced texture.
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Interesting too that meme images (or, well, many of them) don’t seem to have gotten “poisoned” in the same way, even though marketers now try to use them in campaigns.
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Interestingly, the hashtag is alive and well on other platforms (Instagram, TikTok)
Even though it started on Twitter, the format doesn’t lend itself to the way that most people use hashtags:
Spam a bunch hidden beneath the “see more” button to aid the discovery algorithm
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Yes, on TikTok it seems that people only use the hashtags fraudulently. I almost never see authentic uses!
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Have you come across ‘s book?
Definitely a higher level analysis than what you’re discussing (communication > expression) but fascinating story of evolution of the hashtag!
Twitter: A Biography
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I’m not sure if it’s related but ios15 promoting #tags in Reminders and Notes makes me feel all sorts of companies keep taking a run at this. launched tags today as well
Quote Tweet
Tags are here! 
As your library grows, tags can be a powerful way to organize your content.
We've designed tags to be scannable, easy to manipulate, and fast.
This feature has been requested more than any other and we're delighted to finally bring it to you. :)
As your library grows, tags can be a powerful way to organize your content.
We've designed tags to be scannable, easy to manipulate, and fast.
This feature has been requested more than any other and we're delighted to finally bring it to you. :)
GIF
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I still find them helpful in contexts for personal consumption like these and Obsidian
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They basically shipped this recently. Can follow entire “topics” instead of specific accounts, however it’s not as tied to the #Hashtag as you’ve laid out. Picks up on key words/phrases for suggested topics.
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