Hello Internet and welcome to Behind The Meme, today we have a look at, The History of the
Hashtag.
This is a topic I have been wanting to make a video on now for quite some time.
Considering our reliance on the internet it seems like a good topic to educate ourselves
on, and let’s be honest, if you’re watching this video, you probably use the internet
pretty damn often.
So here’s a quick history lesson on the thing you love or you hate but either way
has become a part of your life.
If you grew up in the pre-internet era, you can more than likely remember the days of
corded telephones and landlines.
That’s right kids, there was a time when cellphones weren’t owned by everybody and
texting didn’t exist you actually had to muster up the courage to call your crushes’
house and hope that her dad didn’t answer the phone and threaten to beat your ass to
a pulp.
Ugh….Memories…
And if you somehow remember the rotary phone, I’m just curious to how you transitioned
to using the internet so easily.
I could really use some tips to help out my grandma.
I mean every time I show her my cellphone she looks at me like I’m Harry Potter, seriously!
But that’s neither here nor there.
The reason I bring up these ancient telephones is because they were the starting point of
the hashtag, or “pound sign” as it was originally called.
If we are being technical the pound sign was used prior to phone technology in the form
of written symbol and typewriters but for the sake keeping on track we’ll pick up
from the usage on telephones.
The pound sign was used as a means to navigate a businesses automated telephone menu, typically
as an option to end the call, pay your bill, etc. etc blah blah blah.
Rather than mess with automated menus I always just opted to NOT pay my bills.
I never claimed to be a saint ok? but my strategy worked fine up until the day I found myself
doing questionable things in a dark alley for crack money…I mean, for McDonald’s.
The pound symbol was used for this purpose from around 1966 to present day but it also
acquired a new way to be used,as well as a new name with the dawn of the internet!
On August 23, 2007, a Google developer by the name of Chris Messina tweeted “How do
you feel about using # (pound) for groups.
As in #barcamp [msg]?”
At first, his recommendation wasn’t met with much praise from the tech community or
even Twitter.
He was trying to come up with a simple process so that separate groups of people who wanted
to talk about a particular topic had the ease and ability to connect with other folks who
wanted to join in on the discussion of whatever that topic was.
But Messina didn’t want to invent a new symbol as phone keyboards were already equipped
with the pound symbol and it didn’t have much use outside of the automated menus.
A couple days after his tweet, a fellow techie suggested that the pound symbol be called
a hashtag instead.
Because hashtag sounds way catchier and cooler.
I mean cmon…pound….hashtag…yeah they both sound dumb but hashtag sounds a little
less dumb….or maybe it sounds more dumb.
Either way!
This was the initial conception of what we know as the hashtag on the internet.
and it wouldn’t truly gain traction until 2008 when conservatives used it to encourage
Congress to vote in favor of an energy bill from that year.
Politics have never really been a point of interest for the younger crowd until the world
recently started to go to hell in a hand basket so this really wasn’t enough to boost the
hashtags popularity to the point it’s at now but it was noticed by Twitter users and
began to become more common with its usage.
Finally in 2009 Twitter fully embraced the use of the hashtag by adding the hyperlink
feature to all #Topics.
This was the catalyst for the hashtag evolving into the social media necessity and phenomenon
that we know it as today.
And boy let me tell you!
what a phenomenon it has become!
You can’t browse Twitter or Instagram without seeing at least one post with a hashtag in
it.
Facebook has even caught on to using the hashtag, but honestly hashtags on Facebook just seem
a bit odd.
Twitter will always be the original O.G.
for the social media hashtag and for that, we must all say thank you…or god damn you
twitter!
Depending on what your perspective of hashtages is.
Hashtags have become the easy way to keep up with world events, news ,sports, and even
various local events.
Which by the way, If anybody is going to the San Fransisco Furry Convention this weekend,
I may or may not be there dressed up as a fox.
I repeat, I may or may not be there dressed up as a fox.
#furrylove #itsnotstrange #mymomtilllovesme #dontjudgeme #itlooksbiggerinreallife #hashtag
But hey, that’s the internet for you and on the internet, Hashtags are king!
Thank you all so very much for watching, make sure to subscribe so you can catch my next
video and stay up to date on all your favorite memes, and trends.
Who knows, you may learn about something you never knew about before.
I’ll catch you beautiful people next time.