Wikipedia

Hashtag

(Redirected from Hashtags)
For the group, see HashTag (group). For the typographical symbol, see Number sign. For the EP by Candy Shop, see Hashtag (EP).

A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash symbol, #. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as X (former name as Twitter) or Tumblr as a form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content by topic or theme.[1] For example, a search within Instagram for the hashtag #bluesky returns all posts that have been tagged with that term. After the initial hash symbol, a hashtag may include letters, numerals or other punctuation.[2]

A post on the social media platform Twitter. Several hashtags are used in this post, including "CCCCWI", "TeamRhetoric" and "AcademicTwitter".

The use of hashtags was first proposed by American blogger and product consultant Chris Messina in a 2007 tweet.[3][4] Messina made no attempt to patent the use because he felt that "they were born of the internet, and owned by no one".[5][6] Hashtags became entrenched in the culture of Twitter[7] and soon emerged across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.[8][9] In June 2014, hashtag was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as "a word or phrase with the symbol # in front of it, used on social media websites and apps so that you can search for all messages with the same subject".[10][11]

Origin and acceptance

edit
 
Chris Messina suggested using hashtags on Twitter

The number sign or hash symbol, #, has long been used in information technology to highlight specific pieces of text. In 1970, the number sign was used to denote immediate address mode in the assembly language of the PDP-11[12] when placed next to a symbol or a number, and around 1973, '#' was introduced in the C programming language to indicate special keywords that the C preprocessor had to process first.[13] The pound sign was adopted for use within IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks around 1988 to label groups and topics.[14] Channels or topics that are available across an entire IRC network are prefixed with a hash symbol # (as opposed to those local to a server, which uses an ampersand '&').[15]

The use of the pound sign in IRC inspired[16] Chris Messina to propose a similar system on Twitter to tag topics of interest on the microblogging network.[17] He posted the first hashtag on Twitter:

How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— Chris Messina, ("factoryjoe"), August 23, 2007[3]

According to Messina, he suggested use of the hashtag to make it easy for lay users without specialized knowledge of search protocols to find specific relevant content. Therefore, the hashtag "was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages".[18]

The first published use of the term "hash tag" was in a blog post "Hash Tags = Twitter Groupings" by Stowe Boyd,[19] on August 26, 2007, according to lexicographer Ben Zimmer, chair of the American Dialect Society's New Words Committee.

 
A sign with a #TimeToAct hashtag at a 2014 conference

Messina's suggestion to use the hashtag was not immediately adopted by Twitter, but the convention gained popular acceptance when hashtags were used in tweets relating to the 2007 San Diego forest fires in Southern California.[20][21] The hashtag gained international acceptance during the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests; Twitter users used both English- and Persian-language hashtags in communications during the events.[22]

Hashtags have since played critical roles in recent social movements such as #jesuischarlie, #BLM,[23] and #MeToo.[24][25]

Beginning July 2, 2009,[26] Twitter began to hyperlink all hashtags in tweets to Twitter search results for the hashtagged word (and for the standard spelling of commonly misspelled words). In 2010, Twitter introduced "Trending Topics" on the Twitter front page, displaying hashtags that are rapidly becoming popular, and the significance of trending hashtags has become so great that the company makes significant efforts to foil attempts to spam the trending list.[27] During the 2010 World Cup, Twitter explicitly encouraged the use of hashtags with the temporary deployment of "hashflags", which replaced hashtags of three-letter country codes with their respective national flags.[28]

Other platforms such as YouTube and Gawker Media followed in officially supporting hashtags,[29] and real-time search aggregators such as Google Real-Time Search began supporting hashtags.

Format

edit

A hashtag must begin with a hash (#) character followed by other characters, and is terminated by a space or the end of the line. Some platforms may require the # to be preceded with a space. Most or all platforms that support hashtags permit the inclusion of letters (without diacritics), numerals, and underscores.[2] Other characters may be supported on a platform-by-platform basis. Some characters, such as & are generally not supported as they may already serve other search functions.[30] Hashtags are not case sensitive (a search for "#hashtag" will match "#HashTag" as well), but the use of embedded capitals (i.e., CamelCase) increases legibility and improves accessibility.

Languages that do not use word dividers handle hashtags differently. In China, microblogs Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo use a double-hashtag-delimited #HashName# format, since the lack of spacing between Chinese characters necessitates a closing tag. Twitter uses a different syntax for Chinese characters and orthographies with similar spacing conventions: the hashtag contains unspaced characters, separated from preceding and following text by spaces (e.g., '我 #爱 你' instead of '我#爱你')[31] or by zero-width non-joiner characters before and after the hashtagged element, to retain a linguistically natural appearance (displaying as unspaced '我‌#爱‌你', but with invisible non-joiners delimiting the hashtag).[32]

Etiquette and regulation

edit

Some communities may limit, officially or unofficially, the number of hashtags permitted on a single post.[33]

Misuse of hashtags can lead to account suspensions. Twitter warns that adding hashtags to unrelated tweets, or repeated use of the same hashtag without adding to a conversation can filter an account from search results, or suspend the account.[34]

Individual platforms may deactivate certain hashtags either for being too generic to be useful, such as #photography on Instagram, or due to their use to facilitate illegal activities.[35][36]

Alternate formats

edit

In 2009, StockTwits began using ticker symbols preceded by the dollar sign (e.g., $XRX).[37][38] In July 2012, Twitter began supporting the tag convention and dubbed it the "cashtag".[39][40] The convention has extended to national currencies, and Cash App has implemented the cashtag to mark usernames.

Function

edit
 
Search bar in the header of a social networking site, searching for most recent posts containing the hashtag #science

Hashtags are particularly useful in unmoderated forums that lack a formal ontological organization. Hashtags help users find content similar interest. Hashtags are neither registered nor controlled by any one user or group of users. They do not contain any set definitions, meaning that a single hashtag can be used for any number of purposes, and that the accepted meaning of a hashtag can change with time.

Hashtags intended for discussion of a particular event tend to use an obscure wording to avoid being caught up with generic conversations on similar subjects, such as a cake festival using #cakefestival rather than simply #cake. However, this can also make it difficult for topics to become "trending topics" because people often use different spelling or words to refer to the same topic. For topics to trend, there must be a consensus, whether silent or stated, that the hashtag refers to that specific topic.

Hashtags may be used informally to express context around a given message, with no intent to categorize the message for later searching, sharing, or other reasons. Hashtags may thus serve as a reflexive meta-commentary.[41]

This can help express contextual cues or offer more depth to the information or message that appears with the hashtag. "My arms are getting darker by the minute. #toomuchfaketan". Another function of the hashtag can be used to express personal feelings and emotions. For example, with "It's Monday!! #excited #sarcasm" in which the adjectives are directly indicating the emotions of the speaker.[42]

Verbal use of the word hashtag is sometimes used in informal conversations.[43] Use may be humorous, such as "I'm hashtag confused!"[42] By August 2012, use of a hand gesture, sometimes called the "finger hashtag", in which the index and middle finger both hands are extended and arranged perpendicularly to form the hash, was documented.[44][45]

Co-optation by other industries

edit

Companies, businesses, and advocacy organizations have taken advantage of hashtag-based discussions for promotion of their products, services or campaigns.

In the early 2010s, some television broadcasters began to employ hashtags related to programs in digital on-screen graphics, to encourage viewers to participate in a backchannel of discussion via social media prior to, during, or after the program.[46] Television commercials have sometimes contained hashtags for similar purposes.[47]

The increased usage of hashtags as brand promotion devices has been compared to the promotion of branded "keywords" by AOL in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as such keywords were also promoted at the end of television commercials and series episodes.[48]

Organized real-world events have used hashtags and ad hoc lists for discussion and promotion among participants. Hashtags are used as beacons by event participants to find each other, both on Twitter and, in many cases, during actual physical events.

Since the 2012–13 season, the NBA has allowed fans to vote players in as All-Star Game starters on Twitter and Facebook using #NBAVOTE.[49]

Hashtag-centered biomedical Twitter campaigns have shown to increase the reach, promotion, and visibility of healthcare-related open innovation platforms.[50]

Non-commercial use

edit
 
Stencil graffiti promoting the hashtag #OccupyForRights

Political protests and campaigns in the early 2010s, such as #OccupyWallStreet and #LibyaFeb17, have been organized around hashtags or have made extensive usage of hashtags for the promotion of discussion. Hashtags are frequently employed to either show support or opposition towards political figures. For example, the hashtag #MakeAmericaGreatAgain signifies support for Trump, whereas #DisinfectantDonnie expresses ridicule of Trump.[51] Hashtags have also been used to promote official events; the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially titled the 2018 Russia–United States summit as the "#HELSINKI2018 Meeting".[52]

Hashtags have been used to gather customer criticism of large companies. In January 2012, McDonald's created the #McDStories hashtag so that customers could share positive experiences about the restaurant chain, but the marketing effort was cancelled after two hours when critical tweets outnumbered praising ones.[53]

 
The rise of hashtag activism

In 2017, the #MeToo hashtag became viral in response to the sexual harassment accusations against Harvey Weinstein. The use of this hashtag can be considered part of hashtag activism, spreading awareness across eighty-five different countries with more than seventeen million Tweets using the hashtag #MeToo. This hashtag was not only used to spread awareness of accusations regarding Harvey Weinstein but allowed different women to share their experiences of sexual violence. Using this hashtag birthed multiple different hashtags in connection to #MeToo to encourage more women to share their stories, resulting in further spread of the phenomenon of hashtag activism. The use of hashtags, especially, in this case, allowed for better and easier access to search for content related to this social media movement.[54]

Sentiment analysis

edit

The use of hashtags also reveals what feelings or sentiment an author attaches to a statement. This can range from the obvious, where a hashtag directly describes the state of mind, to the less obvious. For example, words in hashtags are the strongest predictor of whether or not a statement is sarcastic[55]—a difficult AI problem.[56]

Professional development and education

edit

Hashtags play an important role for employees and students in professional fields and education. In industry, individuals' engagement with a hashtags can provide opportunities for them develop and gain some professional knowledge in their fields.[57]

In education, research on language teachers who engaged in the #MFLtwitterati hashtag demonstrates the uses of hashtags for creating community and sharing teaching resources. The majority of participants reported positive impact on their teaching strategies as inspired by many ideas shared by different individuals in the Hashtag. [58]

Emerging research in communication and learning demonstrates how hashtag practices influence the teaching and development of students. An analysis of eight studies examined the use of hashtags in K–12 classrooms and found significant results. These results indicated that hashtags assisted students in voicing their opinions. In addition, hashtags also helped students understand self-organisation and the concept of space beyond place. [clarification needed][59] Related research demonstrated how high school students engagement with hashtag communication practices allowed them to develop story telling skills and cultural awareness. [60]

For young people at risk of poverty and social exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram hashtags were shown in a 2022 article to foster scientific education and promote remote learning.[61]

edit
 
Two young men displaying the hashtag hand gesture

During the April 2011 Canadian party leader debate, Jack Layton, then-leader of the New Democratic Party, referred to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's crime policies as "a [sic] hashtag fail" (presumably #fail).[62][63]

In 2010 Kanye West used the term "hashtag rap" to describe a style of rapping that, according to Rizoh of the Houston Press, uses "a metaphor, a pause, and a one-word punch line, often placed at the end of a rhyme".[64][65] Rappers Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Drake, and Lil Wayne are credited with the popularization of hashtag rap, while the style has been criticized by Ludacris, The Lonely Island,[66] and various music writers.[67]

On September 13, 2013, a hashtag, #TwitterIPO, appeared in the headline of a New York Times front-page article regarding Twitter's initial public offering.[68][69]

In 2014 Bird's Eye foods released "Mashtags", a mashed potato product with pieces shaped either like @ or #.[70]

In 2019, the British Ornithological Union included a hash character in the design of its new Janet Kear Union Medal, to represent "science communication and social media".[71]

Linguistic analysis

edit

Linguists argue that hashtagging is a morphological process and that hashtags function as words.[42][72]

The popularity of a hashtag is influenced less by its conciseness and clarity, and more by the presence of preexisting popular hashtags with similar syntactic formats. This suggests that, similar to word formation, users may see the syntax of an existing viral hashtag as a blueprint for creating new ones. For instance, the viral hashtag #JeSuisCharlie gave rise to other popular indicative mood hashtags like #JeVoteMacron and #JeChoisisMarine.[51]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Chang, Hsia-Ching; Iyer, Hemalata (2012). "Trends in Twitter – Hashtag Applications: Design Features for Value-Added Dimensions to Future Library Catalogues". Library Trends. 61 (1): 248–258. doi:10.1353/lib.2012.0024. ISSN 1559-0682. S2CID 34506239.
  2. ^ a b "What Characters Can A Hashtag Include?". hashtags.org. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Messina, Chris [@factoryjoe] (August 23, 2007). "how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ Parker, Ashley (June 10, 2011). "Twitter's Secret Handshake". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  5. ^ "Chris Messina's answer to Why didn't the creator of the hashtag patent the concept?". Quora. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  6. ^ "The Inventor of the Twitter Hashtag Explains Why He Didn't Patent It". Business Insider. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  7. ^ Panko, Ben. "A Decade Ago, the Hashtag Reshaped the Internet". Smithsonian. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  8. ^ Christina Warren (June 12, 2013). "Facebook finally gets #hashtags". CNN. Mashable. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  9. ^ Zachary M. Seward (October 15, 2009). "Got a #tip? Gawker Media opens tag pages to masses, expecting "chaos"". Nieman Journalism Lab.
  10. ^ "'Hashtag' added to the OED – but # isn't a hash, pound, nor number sign". The Register. June 13, 2014.
  11. ^ "New words notes June 2014". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2014. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014.
  12. ^ "PDP-11 assembly language". Programmer209.wordpress.com. August 3, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  13. ^ B. W. Kernighan; D. Ritchie (1978). The C Programming Language. Prentice Hall. pp. 86, 207. ISBN 978-0-13-110163-0.
  14. ^ "Channel Scope". Section 2.2. RFC 2811
  15. ^ Oikarinen, Jarkko; Reed, Darren (1993). "Channels". Internet Relay Chat Protocol. IETF. sec. 1.3. doi:10.17487/RFC1459. RFC 1459. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  16. ^ "#OriginStory". Carnegie Mellon University. August 29, 2014.
  17. ^ Parker, Ashley (June 10, 2011). "Twitter's Secret Handshake". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  18. ^ Scott, Kate (May 1, 2015). "The pragmatics of hashtags: Inference and conversational style on Twitter" (PDF). Journal of Pragmatics. 81: 8–20. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2015.03.015.
  19. ^ "Stowe Boyd, Hash Tags = Twitter Groupings". Stoweboyd.com. Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  20. ^ What is hashtag?" Archived April 25, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Mashable, 8 October 2013.
  21. ^ "Twitter hashtags for emergency coordination and disaster relief". Factory Joe. October 23, 2007. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  22. ^ "The story of the hashtag began with Iranians". Deutsche Welle Persian. 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  23. ^ Vincent, James (June 2, 2020). "Blackout Tuesday posts are drowning out vital information shared under the BLM hashtag". The Verge.
  24. ^ "#MeToo and more — five hashtags for equality". DW.com. October 15, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  25. ^ Brown, Dalvin. "19 million tweets later: A look at #MeToo a year after the hashtag went viral". USA TODAY. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  26. ^ "Twitter Makes Hashtags More #Useful". July 2, 2009. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  27. ^ "The Secret of Twitter's Trending Hashtags With Insight and Tips". AllISayIs.com. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  28. ^ "Twitter Supports World Cup Fever with Hashflags". Ryanseacrest.com. June 11, 2010. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  29. ^ Zachary M. Seward (October 15, 2009). "Got a #tip? Gawker Media opens tag pages to masses, expecting "chaos"". Nieman Journalism Lab.
  30. ^ Eden, Terence (February 25, 2010). "Hashtag Standards". Terence Eden's Blog. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  31. ^ Martin, Rick (July 13, 2011). "Twitter Rolls Out Hashtag Support for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Russian". Tech in Asia. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  32. ^ International services team (April 5, 2012). "Right-to-left languages on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  33. ^ "What is a (#) Hashtag?". Hashtags.org. June 24, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  34. ^ "The Twitter Rules". Twitter, Inc. Retrieved September 22, 2017. if you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using # ...
  35. ^ "Instagram banned hashtags". BBC.co.uk. November 7, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  36. ^ Olszanowski, M. (2014). "Feminist Self-Imaging and Instagram: Tactics of Circumventing Sensorship". Visual Communication Quarterly. 21 (1): 83–95. doi:10.1080/15551393.2014.928154. S2CID 145667227. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  37. ^ Wong, Matthew (August 17, 2012). "VCs and tart-Ups Pin Their Hopes on Pinterest". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  38. ^ Taylor, Colleen (July 1, 2012). "Howard Lindzon on Why He Sold His Twitter Stock, And The 'Hijack' Of StockTwits' Cashtags [TCTV]". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  39. ^ Kim, Erin (July 31, 2012). "Twitter unveils 'cashtags' to track stock symbols – Jul. 31, 2012". CNN Money. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  40. ^ "Twitter makes stock symbol $ 'cashtag' links official, following # and @". The Verge. July 30, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  41. ^ Wikström, Peter (2014). "#srynotfunny: Communicative Functions of Hashtags on Twitter" (PDF). SKY Journal of Linguistics. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  42. ^ a b c Caleffi, Paola-Maria. "The 'hashtag': A new word or a new rule?" (PDF). Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics.
  43. ^ "hashtag (noun) definition and synonyms". Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  44. ^ Tom Meltzer (August 1, 2012). "How to say 'hashtag' with your fingers". The Guardian. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  45. ^ Nimrod Kamer (March 2013). "Finger-Hashtags". Wired. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  46. ^ Michael Schneider (April 21, 2011). "New to Your TV Screen: Twitter Hashtags". TV Guide.
  47. ^ Todd Wasserman (December 3, 2012). "McDonald's Releases First TV Ad With Twitter Hashtag". Mashable.
  48. ^ Ryan Lawler (June 10, 2012). "Twitter's Hashtag Pages Could Be The New AOL Keywords — But Better". Techcrunch.
  49. ^ "NBA and Sprint tip off NBA All-Star Balloting 2014". NBA.com. November 15, 2013.
  50. ^ Kletecka-Pulker, Maria; et al. (January 1, 2021). "Impacts of biomedical hashtag-based Twitter campaign: #DHPSP utilization for promotion of open innovation in digital health, patient safety, and personalized medicine". Current Research in Biotechnology. 3: 146–153. doi:10.1016/j.crbiot.2021.04.004. hdl:1805/29874. ISSN 2590-2628.
  51. ^ a b Wan, Ming Feng (March 12, 2024). "The role of syntax in hashtag popularity". Linguistics Vanguard. doi:10.1515/lingvan-2023-0051. ISSN 2199-174X.
  52. ^ "#HELSINKI2018 - Ministry for Foreign Affairs". um.fi. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  53. ^ Akwagyiram, Alexis (May 17, 2012). "Are Twitter and Facebook changing the way we complain?". BBC News. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  54. ^ Lindgren, Simon (July 29, 2019). "Movement Mobilization in the Age of Hashtag Activism: Examining the Challenge of Noise, Hate, and Disengagement in the #MeToo Campaign". Policy & Internet. 11 (4): 418–438. doi:10.1002/poi3.212. ISSN 1944-2866. S2CID 201423139.
  55. ^ Maynard (2014). "Who cares about sarcastic tweets? Investigating the impact of sarcasm on sentiment analysis". Proceedings of the Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation.
  56. ^ "Power yourself with viral marketing - become a HashTag Genius". huffingtonpost.com. August 25, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  57. ^ Veletsianos, George (2017). "Three Cases of Hashtags Used as Learning and Professional Development Environments" (PDF). TechTrends. 61 (3): 284–292. doi:10.1007/s11528-016-0143-3. S2CID 64476519.
  58. ^ Rosell-Aguilar, Fernando (2018). "Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers" (PDF). Journal of Interactive Media in Education. 6.
  59. ^ Ellen, Watson (2020). "Education: The Potential Impact of Social Media and Hashtag Ideology on the Classroom. Research in Social Sciences and Technology". Research in Social Sciences and Technology. 5: 40–56. doi:10.46303/ressat.05.02.3.
  60. ^ Gleason, Benjamin (2018). "Thinking in hashtags: exploring teenagers' new literacies practices on Twitter". Learning, Media and Technology. 43 (2): 165–180. doi:10.1080/17439884.2018.1462207. S2CID 64826675.
  61. ^ Puigvert, Lídia; Villarejo-Carballido, Beatriz; Gairal-Casadó, Regina; Gómez, Aitor; Cañaveras, Paula; Martí, Teresa Sordé (February 10, 2022). "An Instagram Hashtag Fostering Science Education of Vulnerable Groups during the Pandemic". International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 19 (4): 1974. doi:10.3390/ijerph19041974. ISSN 1660-4601. PMC 8872541. PMID 35206162.
  62. ^ Anna Mehler Paperny (April 13, 2011). "Jack Layton's debatable 'hashtag' #fail". The Globe and Mail.
  63. ^ "Canadians atwitter throughout debate". CBC News. April 13, 2011.
  64. ^ Zach Baron (November 3, 2010). "The Ten Best Quotes From Kanye West's Epic Hot 97 Interview With Funkmaster Flex". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  65. ^ Rizoh (July 7, 2011). "A Brief History Of Hashtag Rap". Houston Press. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  66. ^ David Mendez (May 22, 2013). "The Lonely Island Puts Hashtag Rap In Its Place (Looking at You, Drake)". Tucson Weekly.
  67. ^ Jeremiah Tucker (December 17, 2010). "Jeremiah Tucker: Hashtag rap is 2010's lamest trend". Joplin Globe.
  68. ^ Goel, Vindu; Bilton, Nick; Gelles, David (September 12, 2013). "A Short Post, a Big Splash: #TwitterIPO". The New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  69. ^ Bilton, Nick [@nickbilton] (September 14, 2013). "My first byline on A1 of the ..." (Tweet). Retrieved September 14, 2013 – via Twitter.[dead link‍]
  70. ^ "Birds Eye launches Mashtags – social media potato shapes". The Grocer.
  71. ^ @IBIS_journal (May 29, 2019). "Our new medal has been designed by our own @stevedudley_ who has a background in design. It [...] uses icons of birds and other #ornithology-related items including people and tech" (Tweet) – via Twitter. [see attached image for explanation of the hash character]
  72. ^ Calude, Andreea S.; Long, Maebh; Burnette, Jessie (June 7, 2024). "#AreHashtagsWords? Structure, position, and syntactic integration of hashtags in (English) tweets". Linguistics Vanguard. doi:10.1515/lingvan-2023-0044. ISSN 2199-174X.
edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hashtags.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hashtag&oldid=1255267147"