Hashtag Hijacking

I had hoped that hashtags would have archival and historical uses. But I have come to the realization that there are too many shades of meaning and that they aren't standardized enough.

The collective understanding of what had been termed "Web 1.0" circa 1999 was that it was a hypertexted, indexed, tagged library--a metaphor for an actual Library. But rather it has become an extension of TV, and the pursuit of celebrity in Web 2.0.

I have been using the #universals tag (now synonymous with #UniversalStudios) and #web30, specifically created to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Web. Yet people use it for "Web 3.0", the provisional label for the next version of the web which theoretically will involve AI, blockchain technology, VR/AR, and so on. 

These days, a block of electronic text can't stand on its own without hashtagging, sharing, liking, retweeting. I have begun to use hashtags in both print and ebooks as an indexed search term as a kind of metadata. For example, I may use #spirituality at the end of a paragraph to describe the content on that particular page that may relate to “religion” or “atheism”, even though both words aren’t taxonomic with spirituality or even the supernatural.

In some respects, the internet is supernatural or "supranatural"; like metadata, it describes the invisible.

“Anything can be 'explained' by invoking supernatural intervention. So, if success is measured by having an explanation, however 'flip' then the intelligent designers' (influencers using hashtags) will always win. But an explanation only has value insofar as it integrates disparate phenomena and relates them to a single underlying principle or unified idea." -- Martin Rees

#disappointing