Only for nerds: The rise of the“hashtag” | by Neel Dozome

The impact of the hash (#) symbol on contemporary social and political conversation

It is hard to imagine social media without the hash sign or “hashtag” (#). In culture and other contexts, however, the humble “#” logoform has previously had many different uses. Musicians understand “#” as the sharp symbol denoting a higher note, a half-step higher. Copy editors see the symbol meaning “add a space between two sentences.” In computer coding, the symbol is used to demarkate actionable instructions from comments to be ignored. In comics, the symbol serves as a “grawlix” (a kind of censored swear word).

However, on social media, the symbol is now widely used to indicate and classify the subject of a post or other content (especially, to lead others searching for that topic to the designated post). We have come to take this behavioural custom and the technology that powers it for granted. Yet, interestingly, when the concept was first mooted it was dismissed as “only for nerds” and that no one would want to use it for social media.

Roots in the keypad design for landline telephones

In the 1980’s, my grandparents used to have a thick black bakelite telephone that you could knock someone out with. Given how expensive phone calls used to be or that the line went dead abruptly for long periods of time, the device was used very sparingly.

This weighty tome of a device was enthroned on a special side-table. The table was made in the intricately carved wood style of Rajasthan and inlaid with ivory and gold leaf. The telephone itself bedded down on a personal miniature carpet like an emperor’s favourite pet. It was a thick and colourful piece of embroidered cloth (that had small mirror-work eyelets). When the telephone wasn’t expected to be in use, it was covered with a lace white doily to protect it from dust and provide an appropriate sense of its dignity. Generally, the phone was used to receive momentous news like a birth, a death or an impending visit from a long lost son. This phone had a circular dial with ten circles that served as finger-hooking holes. Each circle was assigned to a digit and you “dialled” a number by pulling clockwise all the way you could.