Hashtag

Object Lessons

by Elizabeth Losh, Christopher Schaberg (Series Editor), Ian Bogost (Series Editor)

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Hashtags silence as well as shout. They originate in the quiet of the archive and the breathless suspense of the control room, as well as in the roar of rallies in the streets. The #hashtag is a composite creation, with two separate design histories: one involving the crosshatch symbol and one about the choice of letters after it.

Celebration and criticism of hashtag activism rarely addresses the hashtag itself as an object or tries to locate its place in the history of writing for machines. Although hashtags tend to be associated with Silicon Valley invention myths or celebrity power users, the story of the hashtag is much more interesting and surprising, speaking to how we think about naming, identity, and ownership.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2019

About the author

Elizabeth Losh is associate professor of English and American studies at The College of William & Mary with a specialization in new media ecologies. She is author of Virtualpolitik and The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University and coauthor of Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

#outstanding

Losh brings a global perspective to the history and use of this strange object to organise data, communicate information, and shape movements.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book over several weeks, one or two chapters at a time. I have not spent a great deal of time on Twitter, and I only have the most basic understandings of hashtags for Instagram or Facebook, so I was coming in as a newbie. But I felt like I could use to learn something with this micro history, and I'm glad I read it.

The chapters gave some good examples and food for thought about the (sometimes unspoken) rules around using hashtags (like when to use a person's name and when not to) and traced its origins from early time, even before Twitter. Ultimately, I think I'd have to be much more into data mining and optimization to go any deeper, but I really enjoyed learning about the ways the hashtag has basically made history world wide.

[Emma Gerts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful little treatise on the evolution of the hashtag from a button on a push-dial phone to a way to spark social revolution. As both someone who engages frequently with user-tagged social media and a librarian who understands the importance of metadata for grouping and tagging information, this was fascinating and all wrapped up in a bite sized package.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-provoking and wide-ranging examination of the hashtag as a cultural object.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short read (pocketbook sized) about the octothorpe and it’s various uses. A little disjointed in places but given it’s central thesis was built around conversations the author had with friends and colleagues this can be forgiven. Some chapters were very short and warranted some revision (eg #intersection and #noise) in order to be more meaningful, whereas other chapters were way more detailed and interesting.