just to clear this up

Behind The Tweet, ,

I don’t know if this is going to format quite like I want, but the new WordPress will supposedly embed tweets in a post just by asking nicely, so:

Just so we’re clear on hashtags and whatnot: I don’t actually care all that much.

I know this will prompt a few people to say, “LOL Vahid you totally do care I see you go off on rants all the time.” That’s kinda true. I went off on a huge tirade about hashtags in general a few years back, which I remember largely because it upset one person so much that he unfollowed me, took me off his “Cool People” Twitter list, and the next day declared he was still going to keep using hashtags, just without the pound sign in front of them. I really wanted to send him a box of chocolates to congratulate him on his bold stance, but never got around to it.

But, it’s true. I don’t care. I went off on that old rant and, having said my peace, ceased to really give a damn about it. Not everyone is going to use social media the same way that I do, and I’m fine with it. I think the practice of putting a partial sentence into a hashtag, used for searching, is a little silly, mostly because when I read tweets in my head, I read the contents of the hashtag as well, which makes for some oddly distorted sentences. In my head it’s a lot like someone with Tourette’s Syndrome having an outburst during a conversation, or maybe like that old “Mr Subliminal” bit they used to do on Saturday Night Live.

To get an idea of how I end up reading these tweets, imagine having a conversation with a coworker at the end of the day, where you politely ask them if they have anything cool going on that night. They reply, “Can’t wait to get home and have some meat loaf SO HUNGRY! LOVE MEATLOAF! FAVORITE!”

It’s an unusual sort of outburst, but you don’t want to dampen their enthusiasm for a food they enjoy so much that it makes them lose the ability to make a proper sentence, so you let it pass. Anything cool going on over the weekend? you ask. “Pretty excited about going to a baseball game this weekend BASEBALL! DODGERS! GO TEAM! I LIKE HOT DOGS!”

You can see how this is a little distracting. Exposed to this often enough, you might learn to ignore it. Or in the case of Twitter, either set up some filters or just use that thumb to keep scrolling, keep scrolling.

Anyway, I’ll probably still make the occasional joke about #hashtags; I’m making jokes about the convention and not picking on any person in particular. I think most people I know on the Twitter these days get my sense of humor, or at least put up with it. But, if you still want to get upset about it even after all this explanation, I guess I can send you a box of chocolates.

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