Nov 06 2009
A hash tag paints a thousand words
I was sceptical about hash tags on Twitter at first. They seemed to be a way of getting more noise into the signal, and I found that I unfollowed a lot of people whose Twitter stream consisted of nothing more than hashtagged tweets. But it seems that an interesting thing has happened. The hashtag has now become a communication tool in its own right (at least now I’m not following the scatter-gun hashtaggers).
A well placed hash tag can convey so much more meaning than trying to explain what you mean in words. Consider:
“good full-day meeting today #thehellthatismyoffice”
over:
“Another full day meeting today. Seriously, my office is pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable working practice in this day and age”
The first is more concise, funnier, and, more to the point, conveys the message of the tweeter far better. I’m not saying there’s anything profound about this, I just think its a great example of the adaptability of a system like Twitter that has allowed new modes of expression to form, adapt, and exceed their originally planned usage.
Anyone who can give me a couple of examples of messages improved by truncating and hashtagging – please feel free to comment!