hashtags are used for everything from
connecting people with like-minded
political views to grouping pictures of
Pinterest fails but after posting a
slideshow of your dog's birthday party
with the caption hashtag blessed have
you ever wondered where does that symbol
come from whether it's knowing what's
trending on Twitter or trying to
remember impossibly long wedding
hashtags we can all admit that our
favorite little symbol serves an
important function grouping things
together online but let's play a little
game with our hashtag besties the
hashtag because when you see it here
it's a hashtag but what about here and
what if we switch that or how about if
you see it and you happen to be a
programmer or a chess player or a coal
miner or a doctor but before you get
there you have to pass shag ask yourself
where did that little sign come from and
what are all of its meanings and how did
its current and most popular iteration
the infamous hashtag get it start plus
how long are we gonna play help this
hashtags weaksauce hashtag joke we're
done so it seems like the first
iteration of the hashtag goes all the
way back to ancient Rome Romans used the
abbreviation lb short for Libra to mark
the measurement for pounds by weight or
livre pondo which coincidentally
explains why libras are represented in
astrology by scales over time scribes
and writers started drawing a line
through the top of the lb to note that
it was a contraction and because not
only doctors have bad handwriting
over time this contraction started to
look more and more like the pound sign
in the late 17th century Isaac Newton of
the infamous Apple mythology started
using the lb sign a lot so much so that
it was added to the early printing press
the dates of the exact shift from the
pound contraction to the pound sign are
fuzzy but most agree it was around the
19th century and what's interesting is
that the hash sign has always had a
unique relationship to technology in the
mid 20th century developers at Bell Labs
started to transition the old rotary
phones to a new style of keyboard where
people could just push the buttons after
fiddling around with different designs
they settled on a three by four square
but they were worried about the poor
little lonely zero hanging out on the
bottom row so they decided to place our
good buddy the asterisks on the left
side and a diamond on the right
the diamond didn't last long in the
1960s Bell Labs started trying to get
phones to communicate with computers and
the diamond wasn't really a part of
programming language because it wasn't
on the QWERTY keyboard so they swapped
out the diamond for another symbol on
the keyboard a good old pound sign
except for some weird reason they called
it an octave Thorpe those of you old
enough to remember what phones had
buttons and not just touchscreens know
that the pound sign was a pretty
important key when dialing movie phone
or any other kind of automated phone
system and in my case it was the last
button you push to find out if it was a
snow day so how did this humble symbol
become arguably the most important and
trendy sign of the 21st century that's
all thanks to a guy named Chris Messina
in the ancient history of August 23rd
2007 Mussina pitched an idea on Twitter
how do you feel about using hashtag
pound for groups as in hashtag BarCamp
Messina who was a developer at Google
thought that the hashtag had staying
power since it would allow Twitter to
create hyperlinks between groups
he said Twitter didn't support groups so
I figured the next best thing to do was
to use the text of a tweet to indicate
topicality Messina also thought it
sounded like a cool idea because there
was some precedent for using the pound
sign this way but Twitter shot him down
because they thought the idea was for
nerds but we'll just have to call this
hashtag Revenge of the Nerds because the
hashtag exploded and all of us nerds are
still using it today ok so we figured
out the hashtag history of the hashtag I
promise I won't do that again
but why does it matter well if we take
the origin of the hashtag one step
further it actually becomes a very
interesting example of semiotics and
trust me just like the early hashtag
this is definitely for nerds but still
actually pretty cool in its most basic
form semiotic is the study of how
language makes meaning and according to
early semiotician Ferdinand a so sir
there are two key components this
signified the concept or object being
represented or referred to this can be
abstract or concrete like anger or love
or well concrete the second key part is
the signifier this is the word symbol
utterance etc that's used to refer to
the signified okay to understand this
think of an object or concept in your
head whether it's a chair and Apple or
the vague feeling a listlessness that is
now think of the thing itself as
separate from the word because those
words and images you're using to
describe the signified chair Apple or
the more fun to say on we are not the
thing itself language never is in fact
many would argue that the utterances are
somewhat if not entirely arbitrary we
use signifiers as modes of communication
to express both simple and complex
thought but they're not inherently tied
to the thing they describe so imagine a
world in which your word for chair was
not linked to what we consider a chair
but actually lined up to the feeling of
dissatisfaction we call on we so the
sentence I feel ennui while sitting in
this chair could just as easily be I
feel chair while sitting in this ennui
and why does that matter well let's go
back to our friend the hashtag it
represents an interesting case study in
semiotics for many reasons first it
developed alongside the evolution of new
technologies like standardized
measurements the printing press QWERTY
keyboards and touch-tone phones but when
the 21st century brought us twitter the
hashtag shifted again so what the
hashtag or pound sign or octothorpe
signified was always changing if he went
to someone in the 1960s and told them
that the pound sign on their telephone
would one day be useful for people
sharing memes on smartphones they would
have had no idea what you were talking
about because Richard Dawkins wouldn't
even coin the word meme until 1976 and
the only thing a phone could do was let
you talk to someone else but that same
person who wouldn't have understood that
concept in the 1960s is now your cool
aunt hashtag and your baby pictures
online what's weird is that we think of
words and symbols as stable because
that's how we use them to communicate
every day but both words and the people
who articulate them express a certain
amount of evolution and instability as
symbols are used over time that
evolution can be slow like the L V sign
which developed over centuries or rapid
like the hashtag which took only a
handful of years
that's why entomology traces both the
changes in words like spelling and
appearance alongside the changes in
human usage over time and the hashtag is
a pretty great example of this its shape
and meaning had to be stable enough for
people to use it in a given era but it
was also capacious enough to encapsulate
new concepts as they emerged even if
those concepts rendered older meanings
the word out-of-date so to paraphrase
Shrek words and symbols are like onions
they have layers so how does this all
add up we started with a sign for
measuring weight in ancient Rome and
evolved into a ubiquitous little square
that dominates our social media but the
humble hashtag is also an example of how
meaning exceeds the bounds of the
signifier itself because even though
both the signifier and the signified of
the hashtag have changed through time
and usage there's a common feature in
the pound sign and that's grouping
together both objects and concepts so
whether it's adding up numbers measuring
weight marking the end of a code
distinguishing qualities of sound or
even linking together people with
similar interests online this symbol is
pretty great for holding things together
so what do you think any other unknown
meanings of the hashtag we missed in
this episode anything to add to the hash
sign semiotic history leave them in the
comments and we'll see you next week
last week we talked about why 18 is
considered an adult so let's see what
some of you had to say some of you are
wondering when the legal drinking age
became 21 well around the same time
Congress was lowering the voting age
some states experimented with lowering
the drinking age to 18 19 or 20 but
people in that age range are still
developing and maturing which is
probably why it's so hard to rent a car
until you're 25 as a result those states
saw an increase in the drunk driving
accidents involving teens and that made
advocacy groups like Mothers Against
Drunk Driving
well mad in 1984 the minimum drinking
age Act was passed in Congress raising
the drinking age to 21 in all states and
the states that didn't comply risked
losing 10% of their infrastructure
budget as a result Marsha Mooney Meyer
asked how many 18 year olds actually
head out to the polls and that's a great
question according to a 2015 Washington
Post article even though people in the
18 to 25 age group voted a lower rate
than the rest of the population people
who are 18 actually have a higher voter
turnout than their slightly older peers
in the 20 to 25 age group I'll drop that
article down in the work cited page so
you can read more we got some really
great comments from teachers who said
that they'll be sharing our videos with
students and that's awesome so if you
think our episodes can be helpful
teaching aids feel free to share them
and let us know how they helped your
lesson plans also remember to follow us
on Instagram at PBS origin of everything
for all your gift con
and history memes and we'll see you next
week
[Music]