“Where will this all end up? Will we completely lose our ability to be private, respectful, subtle? Will romance die? Often I long for a simpler time when break ups weren't made a trillion times worse by photo tagging, and rather than spelling it out for people you could be irritated by something and not feel as though you had to voice your gripe with convenient hashtags such as #dogaccidents, #cake and #snow in case it becomes a trending topic.” ~ Alexa Chung
For your consideration: hashtags have jumped the shark. For a little while they were useful in aggregating an audience, online marketing stuffs. Then additionally, they became useful in cleverness, as a way of adding an additional dimension to your post, possibly of elusive online sarcasm.
Now, hashtags have become useless as marketing tools except as a way to make yourself a target for bottom feeder marketing trolls / bots, or as a way to grow meaningless "numbers".
Additionally, hashtags are no longer viewed as clever by others, as they have become a sarcastic cliché in and of themselves.
Hashtags are a pointer to our lack of self-awareness and neediness as a culture and, ultimately, our need for awakening.
Please, discuss. And, stop it already.
- JLS