Hashing It Out

I like to think of myself as technically adept. Still, sometimes I fall behind current trends and have to play catch-up. An example is using hashtags. One day everything was well and good on the internet, and the next all I see are # symbols everywhere. At first I tried to ignore them, but they didn’t go away. (I did the same with ‘N Sync, so it was worth a shot.) Much later, I finally broke down and spent thirty seconds researching them, and I now understand that they are used on twitter to categorize tweets and make searching for similar topics easy.

However, it’s obvious that hashtags have seeped beyond simple tweeting and into popular culture, where they are now used anytime that somebody wants to categorize what they’ve written, whether it makes the slightest bit of sense or not.

This leaves me in a bit of a dilemma. I find hashtags annoying, cluttering, and distracting, yet I’m not old enough where I can just be grumpy and ignore anything new that comes around, especially something used by a lot of my peers. This means that if I want to stay socially relevant, I’d have to learn how to use them correctly. This will entail a lot of practice, along with me not being afraid to make mistakes. #MySpecialty #FirstHashTagEver! #CanHashesUseExclamationPoints? #CanHashesUseQuestionMarksQuestionMark #Stressful #Frustrating

#ThrowingMyselfIntoThis. But then again, I’ve never been one to follow current trends. (#WarningSelfCenteredRantComing) I mean, I don’t watch American Idol. I’ve never read a Twilight book (#NeitherShouldAnyGuy). Rappers are just people with silly names to me. #DizzleOrSomething. Why should I break my principles now? Fitting in has never been a priority in the past. Plus, there was a time in this world before hashtags, #TheDarkAges, and I’m sure there’ll be a time after. Perhaps I should just wait it out, and if somebody doesn’t accept me because I don’t use hashtags well, then I'll just consider that person to be quite shallow, and I won't want to know them anyway. #UnlessThatPersonIsASheAndSheIsCuteThenAllBetsAreOff

So that is the current issue that I'm wrestling with. #Stressful. Still, regardless of my pending decision, at least I now understand hashtags. #Kinda #MaybeNot. This means there’s less chance that I’ll get caught in a social situation where somebody makes a joke with a reference to them, and it's understood by everybody but me, leaving me no choice but to pretend to laugh, which I’m terrible at, all while hoping that nobody catches on to my complete ignorance. #MultipleFlashbacks #Stressful. So that makes me happy. #LessStressful

I guess I don’t have much more to say on the subject. Still, I kind of feel like practicing some more.

#GiantSlug #WornOutJoke

#CurlyOut