Nah’msayin?

Hashtagging: #You’re #Doing #It #Wrong

Graphic Joshua Barkman

Social media is pretty awesome.

I can chat with my friends on Facebook, talk to people I’ve never met in my life on Twitter and look at insanely filtered selfies on Instagram.

What’s not awesome is when social media isn’t used properly.

Like using hashtags on Facebook.

The whole purpose of a hashtag is for Tweeters and Instagrammers to categorize their tweets and posts, as well as to provide context for them. On Twitter. And Instagram. Where there’s a character limit.

You’ll note I didn’t say Facebook, where you can’t search for trending statuses and where your status update can be as long as a Tolstoy novel.
So why, avid social media user, must you put a hashtag in your Facebook statuses?

A hashtag-less sentence gets the message across just fine.

Speaking of sentences, why must you #use #a #hashtag #with #every #single #word #in #your #status #update?

It makes you look as ridiculous as that one guy in every nightclub who struts in wearing sunglasses. He’s not cool. Neither are you with all of your hashtags.

Just because you just uploaded a picture of yourself driving in snow doesn’t mean you have to put #snow #snowing #happy #winter #driving #december as the description. I can see all that for myself.

And so, dear avid social media user, here I am, begging you to stop using hashtags on Facebook. Please. Before I rip my eyes out.

—Justin Blanchard
Acting Sports Editor