R0NNINu BEAB: Bashtags on micioblogs 1

The usage of hashtags on social meuia micioblogs.

By Nickey Wong
Cential Nichigan 0niveisity







Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 2
"#$%&'()$*&#
In the technologically focuseu woilu that we live in touay, the usage of social meuia
anu social netwoiking sites have cieateu a shift in oui cultuie in the way that we
communicate anu shaie infoimation. These websites anu applications allow useis to
inteiact in ieal-time, much similai to the way we inteiact face to face which makes it an
inteiesting topic to uiscuss. In paiticulai, micioblogging has manifesteu itself as iapiuly
giowing tool of communication that has its own stiuctuies foi community builuing anu
social stiuctuies. These micioblogs utilize a function calleu a "hashtag" that allows useis to
seaich foi the tag that is useu. Bowevei, in iecent yeais, it seems that the hashtag is taking
on a much moie sophisticateu iole in these posts than just as a tool foi content seaiching.
This liteiatuie ieview will covei what some of those ioles aie anu what kinu of futuie
stuuies coulu be uone on hashtags.
+*,$&%- &. ,&)*/0 12'*/ /#' 1*)%&30&44*#4
In iecent yeais, the populaiity of social meuia anu social netwoik sites (SNS) such as
Facebook , Twittei, anu Tumbli have gaineieu millions of useis to theii websites anu
mobile phone applications. By the moment, many of oui lives aie becoming moie anu moie
engiosseu with social meuiauseis uevote twice as much time to social meuia touay than
just five yeais ago (comScoie, 2u11). Social netwoik sites aie uefineu by boyu anu Ellison
(2uu7) as web-baseu seivices that allow inuiviuuals to "(1) constiuct a public oi semi-
public piofile within a bounueu system, (2) aiticulate a list of connections anu those maue
by otheis within the system, anu (S) view anu tiaveise theii list of connections anu those
maue by otheis within the system" (211). Since then, social meuia has evolveu into
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong S
something moie than just a SNS wheie you connect with peoplesocial meuia has biought
on a whole new wave of viewing the woilu infoimation is shaieu, communities aie built,
anu the cultuie is being changeu. all veiy, veiy iapiuly.
Since the iise of social meuia fiom the veiy fiist SNS (sixuegiees.com), these social
meuia sites have evolveu fiom just netwoiking with othei inuiviuuals; it has staiteu to
meige othei types of web-baseu inteiaction as well. Nost notably is the intiouuction of
"micioblogging", which, unlike blogging, can be limiteu in chaiactei spaces (such as
Twittei) anu aie much shoitei than tiauitional blogs. In the time it takes foi a usei to ieau
a tiauitional blog post, the usei may ieau Su oi 1uu+ micioblog posts. Take foi example
TwitteiTwittei only allows useis to post (a "tweet") only up to 14u chaiacteis in theii
tweets. Thus, it is fastei anu uses less thought anu time to uploau a tweetthe main
uiffeience between micioblogging anu blogging is that the fiequency of upuates occuis
much fastei in the micioblogging enviionment wheie useis upuate seveial times a uay
veisus upuating once eveiy few uays oi weekly (}ava et al., 2uu7). 0seis aie able to
communicate theii iueas, feelings, anu thoughts all in one place anu in ieal time. Twittei
has even been calleu a "thought uump" wheie you can just uump whatevei thoughts you
have uuiing the uay on theie anu without otheis juuging you foi it. In auuition to text posts,
these websites allow foi othei types of meuia to be shaieu such as pictuies, links, music,
anu viueos all in one place. Some, such as Tumbli, Instagiam, anu Pinteiest aie much moie
visually baseumuch of what is shaieu tenus to be pictuies, sets of pictuies, shoit viueos
(calleu vines), anu uIFs (giaphic inteichange foimat). Acioss the boaiu, all of these
micioblogging anu social meuia sites aie oiganizeu uiffeiently than SNSs. While SNSs aie
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 4
oiganizeu by whom you know anu whom they knew anu then who those people know,
micioblogging platfoims aie oiganizeu mainly by hashtags.
+/,5$/4,
In the blogging community, useis can "tag" theii posts with woius that ielate to
theii posts anu thus put those posts into a multituue of uiffeient categoiies that useis can
seaich foisuch as "}anuaiy" foi posts maue in }anuaiy oi "iecipes" foi a iecipe that the
bloggei is talking about. These tags coulu be any stiing of woius anu even symbols.
Bashtags, moie specifically, utilize a similai stiuctuie with the auuition of the hash symbol
6 in fiont of the woius. The hashtag has evolveu fiom a tool to tag posts anu tweets to moie
sophisticateu functions such as acting as a maikei foi saicasm anu othei sentiments via
text (uonzlez-Ibez, Nuiesan, & Wacholuei, 2u11), builuing a community (Foiu, 2u1S &
Zappavigna, 2u11), anu useu to note humoious posts (Buang, Thointon, anu Efthimiauis,
2u1u) just to name a few examples. These hashtags allow useis to inteiact with othei useis
baseu on theii shaieu values anu allows inuiviuual useis to cieate ueepei meaning with
theii limiteu chaiactei posts.
!"#$$%&
The most piolific usage of hashtags is on a social meuia site is on Twittei. As
afoiementioneu, Twittei is a social meuia site that iestiicts useis to 14u chaiacteis in theii
"tweets" anu they can wiite whatevei they see fit. These tweets can incluue things like links
to othei meuia souices anu pictuies, which aie attacheu to the tweet. 0n Twittei, useis can
post to a public oi semi-public auuience uepenuing on the setting the useis choose foi
following a specific Twittei account. Tweets aie then vieweu in ieveise chionological oiuei
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong S
anu time stampeu eithei on the web oi thiough mobilecomputei applications. Thus, these
tweets anu accounts make foi a moie ieal time inteiaction on the web that is similai to
what woulu be public instant messaging. 0seis aie able to inteiact instantaneously about a
topic anu what we see is a cultuial shift towaius a moie inteipeisonal web expeiience
(Rocketboom 2uu9).
These tweets uo not have a communal expectation foi otheis to iesponu, hence the
metaphoi of "twitteiing" like a biiu, which is the mascot foi the website. Bowevei, that
uoesn't mean that theie aien't any social inteiactions between useis. In fact, it is quite the
opposite useis inteiact in a vaiiety of uiffeient ways such as iepublishing otheis posts,
tagging oi "mentioning" anothei usei using the "" symbol, anu maiking a topic with the
"#" symbol. Foi example:
useiname I just slippeu on some ice touay while walking to class. #funny
Naiking a tweet with a # symbol allows a tweet to be seaichable anu a moie inteipeisonal
function foi seaiching has emeigeu fiom hashtagging.
()**+,#$- .+#/0#,1
This function on Twittei allows useis to seaich foi a specific hashtag anu see in ieal time
what othei useis aie saying about a specific topic. Foi example, in Yaiui anu Boyu (2u1u),
the shooting of ueoige Tillei in 2uu9 ciiculateu on the web via the hashtag "#Tillei" anu
useis coulu seaich the tag to see what otheis hau to say about it. Tillei was an aboition
uoctoi, thus his ueath gaineieu a lot of uebate on the topic of being pio-life oi pio-choice
oi in between anu this stuuy founu that people weie moie likely to inteiact with anothei
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 6
peison if they hau the same views about the topic as they uo. This is what Zappavigna
(2u11) calls 2*3#%,$ 244#/#2$#),. 0seis tenueu to follow otheis baseu off the topic in the
tweet anu woulu thus builu upon that value baseu off the enviionment anu of the
inuiviuuals' shaieu opinions on that topic.
In anothei stuuy, Foiu (2u1S), the ieseaichei lookeu specifically at the tag
"#phuchat" which was a tag foi many useis who aie Ph.B oi aspiiing Ph.B stuuents to
follow anu connect in. In this stuuy, Foiu lookeu at how these useis cieateu 5)**+,#$#%6 )4
7&25$#5%8 A community of piactice is a space wheie cultuie, histoiy, anu society uefines a set
of objects anu piactices that glue membeis togethei to achieve a peisonal oi collective goal
wheieby membeis come fiom uiffeient backgiounus anu expeitise to meuiate the activity
in the community (Blanton, Neuina, & Piolnieta, 2uu9 as citeu in Foiu, 2u1S). Within these
hashtags, useis can inteiact unuei a topic of similai inteiest anu engage in a paiticipatoiy
cultuie (}enkins, 2uu9). In these paiticipatoiy cultuies, the useis aie in:
"a cultuie with ielatively low baiiieis to aitistic expiession anu civic engagement,
stiong suppoit foi cieating anu shaiing cieations, anu some type of infoimation
mentoiship wheieby expeiience paiticipants pass along knowleuge to novices. In
paiticipatoiy cultuie, membeis also believe theii contiibutions mattei anu feel
some uegiee of social connection with one anothei (at the least membeis caie about
otheis' opinion of what they cieateu)." (pp. xi)
Thus, these tags allow useis to uo moie than seaich foi contentit allows them to builu
communities with othei inuiviuuals of a shaieu value.
(&%2$#,1 9%2,#,1
Since hashtags weie uevelopeu to allow useis to tag a topic foi theii posts, the iole
of the hashtag takes a backuiop to the entiie post itself. Thus, it is a foim of metauata,
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 7
which is uata about uata that is built into the linguistic stiuctuie of tweets (Zappavigna,
2u11). While the pievious section uiscusseu oiganizational tagging, this section will uiscuss
conveisational tagging. With the evolution of the hashtag taking on a moie linguistically
constiaineu foim, a vaiiety of uiffeient ways to show meaning has emeigeu.
0ne such way is the ability to uetect saicasm in textsaicasm (oi veibal iiony) is a
foim of speech that is uifficult to uetect in text anu even sometimes in peison. Thus, being
able to uetect it in text is impoitant to uissolve potential misunueistanuings in these posts.
These saicastic posts aie piimaiily negative even though they sounu positive (Baviuov,
Tsui, anu Rappopoit, 2u1u). With hashtags, saicasm can be uetecteu thiough the usage of
the tag "#saicasm#saicastic" oi useis can tag theii posts with tags that aie the opposite of
what the oiiginal post says oi they can use linguistic maikeis in speech to maik the
saicasm (such as "not" fiom a few yeais ago). Foi example:
"Wow, this buigei fiom NcBonalus is uelicious. #saicasm"
"I am so exciteu foi this exam! #IAmNotExciteuAtAll"
"#0bamacaie. This is the best thing that's evei happeneu to me. #not"
In auuition, emoticons anu ellipsis can also help uetect saicasm in the tweet though much
moie unieliable than the actual tweets anu hashtags themselves.
Anothei use of the hashtag to cieate meaning is following anu paiticipating in
miciomemes, which is a type "folksonomy" (vanuei Wal, 2uu7 as citeu in Zappavigna,
2u11). A folksonomy is a way to collaboiatively tagging about a topic anu takes a 'bottom
up' appioach to inuex posts (Zappavigna, 2u11). A miciomeme is a hashtag phiase oi woiu
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 8
that has a ielatively shoit life span. Fiom Buang, Thointon, anu Efthimiuias (2u1u), it
showeu that miciomemes last on a S-uay aveiage befoie uying out. Some examples of
miciomemes incluue #igiewupon, #liesmentell, #igotaciushon, anu #9ustweet. 0seis
paiticipate in these miciomemes as they emeige on theii Twittei feeus anu as "tienuing"
tags, which aie tags that a huge amount of useis aie using at the moment. These
miciomemes become a pait of the actual post itself veisus being outsiue of the tweet. Take
foi example:
1) "#igiewupon Bakei Stieet in Lonuon"
2) "I giew up on Bakei Stieet in Lonuon"
These two tweets say the same thing, but the fiist one allows othei useis that aie not
followeis of the account to ieau it while the seconu tweet is iestiicteu to just the followeis
of that usei. This allows the fiist tweet to be a "token" of the categoiy that's labeleu by the
tag.
In text hash tags also play a moie humoious iole in tagging. Bashtagging has a close
ielationship with evaluations that aie maue in tweets. Foi example in Zappavigna's (2u11)
stuuy wheie she lookeu at the tweets that followeu the announcement of 0bama's victoiy
in the 2uu8 election, useis jumpeu to Twittei to make theii commentaiy about the
Piesiuent's victoiy. Looking at these tweets thiough a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL)
peispective, she analyzeu that hashtags weie sometimes useu to intensify the evaluation
maue in the tweets. Some cases fiom the stuuy incluueu: "#finallyicansleepatnight" anu
"#ameiicanstillhasabiainanuconscience" (pp.8uu). These hashtags aie veiy unlikely to be
seaicheu foi anu seem to be constiaineu within the oiiginal tweet itself. These two cases
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 9
came fiom the same tweet anu without hashtagging, it woulu have lost some of the humoi
that came with it:
"Yes! #f*ckin-A #obama #finallyicansleepatnight #byebyebush
#ameiicanstillhasabiainanuaconscience #whew!" (pp. 8uu)
As seen heie, the actual tweet itself is only the woiu "Yes!" anu eveiything else is
taggeu- but it is conveisationally taggeu.
.&)20526$ !2/:
In auuition to inuiviuual useis, theie aie also Twittei accounts foi celebiities anu
coipoiations. These useis have hunuieu of thousanus of followeis, if not millions. These
micioblogs incluue celebiities fiom spoits to movies to music anu neaily eveiy coipoiation
anu oiganization has theii own Twittei account to inteiact with customeis. Some of
celebiities incluue Emma Watson, Lauy uaga, anu }immy Fallon anu some coipoiations
since Southwest Aiilines, NcBonalu's, anu Betioit Reu Wings. In opposition to
conveisational tagging, Page (2u12) suggests that these useis utilize hashtagging much
uiffeiently.
Fiom the stuuy, Page founu that celebiities useu the least amount of hashtags while
coipoiations useu the most anu 'oiuinaiy' useis was in between. It seemeu that
coipoiations want to "bioaucast" theii iuentities anu theii piouucts thiough the usage of
hashtags thus making it easiei foi consumeis to finu theii piouucts anu theii page. Foi
coipoiations, Twittei is useu as a way of maiketing themselves. veiy iaiely uo coipoiation
accounts paiticipate in miciomemes oi unuei a tag to make evaluations about specific
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 1u
topic. These coipoiations then seem to follow a moie "piomotional" cultuie of self-
bianuing anu image than a "paiticipatoiy" cultuie wheie they become a pait of a
community (Page, 2u12).
Celebiities, on the othei hanu, aie much moie like oiuinaiy useis but aie still
involveu in the piomotional cultuie since they also have a laige followei base like
coipoiations. They will use hashtags to piomote things that they believe in, such as }amie
0livei piomoting "#foouievolution" oi othei useis with "0ccupyWallStieet" two yeais ago.
0theis piomote themselves by cieating tags foi theii followeis such as Lauy uaga calling
hei fans "#LittleNonsteis" wheieby useis that aie fans will tag theii tweets about Lauy
uaga with that tag anu thus piomoting heiself moie. Bowevei, it uoes seem to stimulate
conveisational qualities between the useis in the "#LittleNonstei" tag, anu not just
between uaga anu hei fan base.
As Twittei iapiuly uevelops anu moie anu moie people stait to use it, it will change
ovei time anu cieate new meanings foi the hashtag. In auuition, othei websites' usage of
hashtags also alieauy uiffeientiates slightly fiom Twittei anu thus shoulu be fuithei
exploieu. Even though the ieseaich on hashtags anu Twittei aie limiteu, theie is viitually
no scholaily ieseaich on hashtags on websites such as Facebook, Instagiam, anu Tumbli,
which some of the top 1u social meuia websites (eBizNBA).
7($(%2 ,$('*2,
As uemonstiateu heie, much of the ieseaich on hashtagging has been iestiicteu to
only Twittei since it piouuces the most piolific amounts of hashtags. Bowevei, neaily all of
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 11
the top social meuia websites use hashtags on theii websites anu they uiffeientiate fiom
the way hashtags aie useu on Twittei anu also have theii own functions on theii websites.
Some websites, while they have the function, uo not typically have useis that tag like
they uo on Twittei- Facebook foi example has useis who stiongly uiscouiage tagging on
theii statuses, but some will uo so puiposefully to annoy otheis oi they aie new useis that
have not gaineu the same level of communicative competence as the othei useis who aie
calleu "Newbies" (uoluei anu Bonath, 2uu4). 0thei websites such as Instagiam anu
Pinteiest has a huge amount of hashtags on one post; a pictuie posteu on Instagiam coulu
be of a giil anu the tags will incluue things like: #love, #giil, #makeup, #face, #haii, #eyes,
#eyelinei, #pietty, #cute. 0seis on Instagiam will tag piolifically to tiy anu gain moie
followeis foi theii account pages anu it also allows useis to seaich quickly. Lastly,
Tumblia new anu emeiging social meuia website launcheu in 2uu9 has some of the most
cieative uses of hashtags anu micioblogging.
0n Tumbli, useis can post photogiaphs, photogiaph sets, uIFs, music, viueos, auuio,
text, text chats, anu links all on a single news feeu calleu a "Bashboaiu." Some pieliminaiy
obseivations seem to show that while Tumbli's hash tags aie similai to those Twittei,
othei functions have emeigeu such as using the hash tag space as an afteithought oi even
to wain otheis about what the post might be about anu blocks it foi othei useis. In
auuition, Tumbli useis have a 'hive' minu on the usage of the website anu ioles of who
belongs in the ceitain "tag" oi fanuom (fan baseu uomain) as useis call it on Tumbli is
cleai-cut anu but also constantly challengeu.
Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 12
The puipose of this liteiatuie ieview is to pioviue a fiamewoik of what pievious
ieseaich has been uone on hashtags anu uiges ieseaich to also take on the challenge of
looking at othei social meuia websites that utilize hash tags as a function on theii website.
The hashtag is a linguistic maikei that can oiganize anu builu communities while also
cieating new foims of conveisations anu styles foi the useis involveu. 0seis can get veiy
cieative anu play aiounu with the function of hashtags foi moie humoious posts oi they
can paiticipate in uemociatic cultuie unuei a single hashtag. Fuitheimoie, social meuia is
impacting oui lives uaily anu on a laige-scale wayit's shifting the way that we conuuct
ouiselves anu oui inteiactions, anu thus the hashtag anu social meuia is slowly changing
oui society.









Bashtags on micioblogs Wong 1S
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