I love hashtag communication: the modern use of these small hash symbol labels meant to convey a specific point. You can sum up an entire paragraph of concepts and ideas in a single pairing of symbol and word. Who needs prepositions, gerunds, and contractions? Who wants words? I’m an English literature major, and even I would rather read a hashtag feed of “#Ulysses” than read the actual language compiled by James Joyce.
We want to read lists; we want to hear stark, unadulterated reason; we want easy access to opinions and perceptions and easy methods to discuss them. It’s almost as if the hash symbol translates to, “what I really mean is…” A mark once meant to categorize thoughts now functionally defines them. Within the four walls of that hollow mark exists a place of honesty, impenetrable by innuendo and ambiguity.
In my opinion, this practice is pretty indicative of our generation’s current mindset in general. Give us the truth; don’t sugarcoat it. Gone are the days of pretty language, of slow build-ups, of introductions and conclusions. We want the meaty center, and we want it now.
We’re impatient because our lives move quickly. The newest technology becomes obsolete in a matter of months and fads flicker in and out of our lives in 6-10 seconds. Who has time for a study or an article for that matter; lists provide the same end results; hashtags draw the same conclusions.
This is not only a feature that shows up in language: TV characters in recent years have become increasingly forward, acting without restraint. Popularity of socially dysfunctional personas such as Abed of “Community” or even the modernized Sherlock Holmes from the BBC’s “Sherlock,” are indicative of the characteristics which we presently find compelling. These characters stand out because they don’t operate under normative social constructs. While Watson might break the news easy, Sherlock will tell it like it is, offensive blatancy, disregard for emotions, and all. Because they exist outside of society, they don’t have to obey the sugary language and etiquette rules which society demands we follow.
And maybe it’s about time we threw those practices to the wayside. Though communication is losing its classic art and play, we are gaining levels of precision and exactitude hitherto unseen. At some point in history we stopped constructing beautiful and complex language to dress up simple ideas, and began dissecting complex language in order to uncover those ideas, to break them down to their nuclei. Language was once an art. Now it is a precise code. But that is its function; always changing, always adapting, never stagnant. Maybe, in some way, the present art of language is in its simplicity; a linguistic, colloquial adaptation of the Cubist or Imagist movements.
For those who disapprove, don’t worry – it will change again, very soon. It’s possible there’s a general trend, and direction to abridge, but it’s hard to imagine it gets any more simplified than this (though I wouldn’t put it past us).
As with any advancement though, it pays to accept change with caution. Maria Konnikova, in a blog on the online New Yorker, writes regarding the new internet phenomenon of listing that, “we tend to choose the latter bite-sized option, even when we know we will not be entirely satisfied by it,” a practice which she describes as “just fine.” But, she cautions, keep in mind that “our fast-food information diet is necessarily limited in content and nuance, and thus unlikely to contain the nutritional value of the more in-depth analysis of traditional articles that rely on paragraphs, not bullet points.”
And perhaps that is where the flaw lays. Shorthand often leads to an informational shortchange. We attempt to be accurate, but in doing so we lose surrounding details and depth, leaving things blurry and out of focus. Hashtags are precise and clean, short and sweet, but wholly hyperbolized. Breaking an age-old religious and political battle down to #BoycottIsrael or rendering a person, complete with personality quirks and individual characteristics, #beleiber4life is too concise, too exact, excluding all the fine points and ignoring all the nuances. We can talk faster, we can argue more, but can we understand what we’re saying if we’re giving ourselves just one symbol and one word or phrase to say it?
From George Orwell’s 1984 to Dr. Seuss’s On Beyond Zebra, we are cautioned about the limitations which vocabulary places on our ability to conceive. We can only think as far as we can define, they argue, compelling us to expand our language rather than consolidate it.
Hashtags can be extremely helpful and lists are both entertaining and informative. But when concepts are broad and multifaceted, shorthand does not do them justice. Snapchats don’t capture the whole picture. Vines are simply a segment of the story. So don’t stop the progression (not that you could if you tried), just hashtag with caution, label with care, and realize that you’re getting just one course of a much larger, well-balanced meal.
This article originally appeared on Chadashim, a student-run online newspaper for the Anglo-Olim community of students in Israel.
Tikva Jacob is a student at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and is editor in chief of Chadashim.
