#Congratulations: the hashtag exists 15 years

It’s a party this week because the hashtag exists 15 years!

Social media has become indispensable: the hashtag! Wherever you venture on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, it is everywhere. For 15 years, the hashtag has been used to highlight a topic or to put extra emphasis on something.

Well, it’s not that the # sign was invented just 15 years ago, but Twitter programmer Chris Messina came up with the idea on August 23, 2007 to use the hashtag to group topics. Not an immediate success, but during the Iranian uprising of 2009, the hashtag surrounding that uprising was well followed. After that, the # became more and more in use.

Trends

In July 2009, Twitter decided to add hyperlinks to the hashtags. As a user, you can easily search for specific topics. Another year later, the social medium used it to determine trending topics. Which hashtags are most searched for?

The hashtag is no longer just limited to Twitter. The # has now also become established on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Some hashtags even make it into everyday life like #MeToo.

Such a #MeToo has become a social statement and keeps coming back. There are classics such as #dare to ask or #dtv, #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM or just #love or #fashion that are once again extremely popular on Facebook and Instagram.

History

Of course the # already existed before 2007. Just not in this usage. Just think of those information numbers “…and close with a hash” or color codes in your Photoshop document. In English # stands for “number” and in music we call it a sharp and raise a note by a semitone.

The hashtag has also been used online before. On IRC, Internet Relay Chat, the # was used to name various chat boxes. That’s how Messina came up with the idea.

So the # is widely used and has been on social media for 15 years now. #congratulations and #hiephiephoera!

Through: BD.nl