# Hashtag > Hashtag is a 2007 social media convention proposed by Chris Messina using # to prefix words or phrases for tagging and organizing posts around shared topics. A hashtag is a word or phrase prefixed with the # symbol, used on social media to tag and organize posts around a shared topic. First proposed for Twitter by Chris Messina on August 23, 2007[1], the hashtag grew from a niche convention into one of the most recognizable features of online communication, eventually being named the 2012 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society[2]. ## Origin The # symbol itself has ancient roots. It traces back to the Latin abbreviation *lb* for *libra pondo* ("pound in weight"), which scribes wrote with a horizontal line across to indicate abbreviation. Over centuries of hasty handwriting, that ligature morphed into the # we know today[6]. The symbol appeared on typewriter keyboards in the 1870s and was added to Bell Labs' touch-tone telephone keypad in 1968[5]. The practice of using # to organize online discussions started on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks around 1988, where chat rooms were prefixed with the symbol followed by a topic name[3]. But IRC hashtags were limited to people actually in the room. Chris Messina, a Google user experience designer who earned his communication design degree from Carnegie Mellon in 2003[7], brought the concept to Twitter. On August 23, 2007, he tweeted: "how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?"[1]. Two days later, he published a detailed blog post titled "Groups for Twitter; or A Proposal for Twitter Tag Channels," arguing that the # convention could let Twitter users follow topic-based conversations without needing to follow each other directly[8]. He cited the March 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference as an example of where hashtags would have been useful. On August 28, 2007, web anthropologist Stowe Boyd responded with a blog post where he coined the actual term "hash tag" to describe the concept[4]. Messina pitched the idea formally to Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Ev Williams, but they reportedly told him hashtags were "for nerds" and would never catch on[5]. - **Platform:** IRC (original # convention), Twitter (modern hashtag proposal) - **Creator:** Chris Messina (proposer), Stowe Boyd (coined the term "hash tag") - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview A hashtag is a metadata label consisting of the # symbol followed by a word or phrase with no spaces. When someone includes a hashtag in a post, it groups that content with every other post using the same tag, making it easy to find and follow conversations about a specific subject[3]. The format is dead simple: type #, add your keyword, and you've created a searchable link to a broader discussion. Hashtags are not case-sensitive (#Hashtag and #hashtag return the same results), though CamelCase improves readability[3]. The convention works across nearly every major social platform today, from X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn[5]. ## How It Spread Despite Twitter's initial indifference, early adopters ran with the idea. In October 2007, Nate Ritter used the hashtag #sandiegofire to post twelve hours of continuous news updates during the Southern California wildfires that burned nearly a million acres across the region[4]. The tag drew attention from news outlets and blogs, proving hashtags could organize real-time information during breaking events[9]. Not everyone was on board. In a February 2008 blog post, content strategist Dave Coustan announced he would unfollow anyone who used hashtags, arguing they cluttered the conversational feel of Twitter with machine-readable metadata[10]. "I want my Twitter to remain as human a form of communication as possible," he wrote. His stance captured the skepticism some users felt about the format's visual intrusiveness. That same year, Twitter's mom-blogger community started using hashtags to host virtual parties. By November 2008, bloggers from Mommy Gossip (later Mom It Forward) launched a weekly Tuesday-night "Girls' Night Out" under the hashtag #gno, attracting 250-500 participants sending over 1,500 tweets per hour[11]. Sitewarming parties organized by mommy blogger Amy Bair regularly pushed their hashtags to the top of Twitter Search trending topics within minutes[12]. In early 2009, how-to guides for using hashtags started appearing on tech blogs like Mashable[13]. Then in April 2009, the format got its first major stress test when Amazon appeared to de-rank LGBT-themed books from search results. The hashtag #AmazonFail spread rapidly across Twitter as users organized collective outrage[14]. NPR covered the backlash[15], the Wall Street Journal coined it a new term[16], and internet researcher Clay Shirky published a now-famous analysis calling the hashtag's viral spread both a "failure" and an "intoxicating" experience, noting how the emotional rush of joining a righteous hashtag campaign could override critical thinking[17]. ## How to Use Hashtags follow a simple format: 1. **Type the # symbol** followed immediately by your word or phrase (no space between # and the word) 2. **No spaces or special characters** within the hashtag. Multiple words run together: #ThrowbackThursday, not #Throwback Thursday 3. **Keep it concise.** #bizducks works better than #businessofthecallingducksconference[13] 4. **Give context.** If creating a new hashtag, explain what it's for in your first few posts[13] ## Cultural Impact Hashtags fundamentally changed how information spreads online. They gave ordinary users the power to create and join conversations at scale, without needing permission from any platform or gatekeeper. In marketing, brands built entire campaigns around hashtags. Calvin Klein's #MyCalvins encouraged users to post photos in their underwear. Red Bull's #PutACanOnIt promoted creative photos with their product. Expedia's #ThrowMeBack campaign offered travel vouchers for nostalgic posts[5]. But brand hashtag campaigns also backfired spectacularly at times, as companies discovered they couldn't control how the public would use an open tag. In politics and social justice, hashtags became organizational tools for real movements. The Arab Spring protests, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and Me Too all used hashtags as rallying points that could spread faster than any traditional organizing method[5]. Messina, the inventor, never attempted to patent the concept. "They were born of the internet, and owned by no one," he said[3]. He continued working in tech and is recognized by Carnegie Mellon University as a notable alumnus[7]. ## Fun Facts - Twitter co-founder Ev Williams initially dismissed Messina's hashtag proposal, saying it was too "geeky" for mainstream users[5] - The # symbol's technical name is "octothorpe," coined at Bell Labs in the 1960s. The "octo" refers to its eight points, and "thorpe" may honor Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe, though the exact etymology is debated[6] - Chris Messina graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a communication design degree in 2003, four years before proposing the hashtag[7] - The #AmazonFail hashtag in April 2009 was one of the first examples of collective Twitter outrage, and Clay Shirky's analysis of it became a widely cited essay on how social media can short-circuit critical thinking[17] - In Singapore and Malaysia, the # symbol is commonly called "hex" and is used in apartment addresses to indicate floor numbers[6] ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is a hashtag? A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the # symbol, used on social media platforms to categorize content and make it searchable. Clicking a hashtag shows all posts tagged with that term[3]. ### Where did the hashtag come from? Chris Messina proposed using the # symbol on Twitter on August 23, 2007, inspired by IRC chat rooms that used # to name channels. Stowe Boyd coined the term "hash tag" five days later[4]. ### What does a hashtag mean? A hashtag marks a post as part of a larger conversation about a specific topic. It functions as a metadata label, grouping related content together across an entire platform[5]. ### How do you use a hashtag? Type the # symbol followed immediately by your keyword or phrase with no spaces. Keep it short, give it context, and avoid overusing them in a single post[13]. ### Is the hashtag still popular? The hashtag is a foundational feature of nearly every major social media platform, from X and Instagram to TikTok and LinkedIn. It was named the 2012 Word of the Year and added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2014[2]. ### Who invented the hashtag? Chris Messina, a Google UX designer and Carnegie Mellon graduate, proposed the modern hashtag for Twitter in August 2007. He never patented the idea[7]. ### When did Twitter officially support hashtags? Twitter began automatically hyperlinking hashtags in tweets on July 2, 2009, nearly two years after Messina's original proposal[3]. ### What was the first hashtag used in a crisis? Nate Ritter used #sandiegofire during the October 2007 California wildfires to post twelve hours of news updates, demonstrating hashtags could organize real-time emergency information[4]. ### When did Facebook add hashtag support? Facebook rolled out hashtag support on June 12, 2013, though privacy settings limited visibility compared to Twitter's open model[19]. ### What is hashtag activism? Hashtag activism uses hashtags to organize social and political movements at scale. Major examples include #BlackLivesMatter (2013), #MeToo (2017), and #JeSuisCharlie (2015)[5]. ### Why did some early Twitter users dislike hashtags? Content strategist Dave Coustan publicly said he would unfollow anyone using hashtags, arguing the visible metadata cluttered Twitter's conversational feel and made communication less human[10]. ### When was "hashtag" named Word of the Year? The American Dialect Society chose "hashtag" as the 2012 Word of the Year on January 4, 2013, in a vote by over 250 linguists and language experts[2]. ## References 1. [Hashtag Happy Hours: How Moms Party Down on Twitter | Mashable]() 2. [HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags | Mashable]() 3. [» The Failure of #amazonfail Clay Shirky]() 4. [Hashtag - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Hashtag]() 6. [Hashtag - Urban Dictionary]() 7. [October 2007 California wildfires]() 8. [Number sign - Wikipedia]() 9. [Facebook rolling out hashtag support starting today | The Verge]() 10. [Hashtag | Symbol, History, Social Media, & Activism | Britannica]() 11. [The History of Hashtags: How a Symbol Changed Social Media - Marketing Scoop]() 12. [The Hashtag: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Icon Popularized by Twitter]() 13. [Hashtag History - CMU125 - Carnegie Mellon University]() 14. [Hashtag memes: Breaking the single story through humour | Science and Technology | Al Jazeera]() 15. [Hashtag Happy Hours: How Moms Party Down on Twitter | Mashable]() 16. [HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags | Mashable]() 17. [about #gno - Mom it ForwardMom it Forward]() 18. [Amazon Learns A Painful Lesson About The Twitter Hashtag : NPR]() 19. [Why I Unfollow People Who Use Hashtags On Twitter – Extraface]() 20. [Groups for Twitter; or A Proposal for Twitter Tag Channels – Factory Joe]() 21. [Blogs and Twitter Coin “AmazonFail” - WSJ]() 22. [“Hashtag” is the 2012 Word of the Year – American Dialect Society]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/hashtag Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library