Sunday 3 February 2013

#thisisgettingoutofhand

It was only in my last post that I wrote about this mass movement of social media. It really is huge; rather brilliant in fact if I say so myself. As much as I mock the intensity of time that people give it I am also as much of a culprit. Mainly because procrastination is one of my fortes and, as many of you will know I'm sure, aimlessly scrolling down your Facebook and Twitter feeds is all the more appealing when you really shouldn't be. It makes nearly no sense at all that genuine hard work needs to take place and you're sitting around on the internet like a bad smell; the internet's equivalent of one of those low-lifers at the school gates.

But today's not the day that I go down the road of contemplating the art that is procrastination. Maybe I'll write about that when I'm close to the deadline for next week's assignment; a proper excuse to avoid hard academic labour is what I'll shortly be telling myself. Not today. And before I begin, when you re-post this onto Twitter and Facebook (yes, I sometimes like to flatter myself), remember which is which. Have a long hard think.

Until hashtagging is a genuinely applicable thing on Facebook, i.e, when it actually serves it's purpose, don't bother. It's not cool or witty: it's simply annoying. And considering the website in question, Beth Ditto will probably need more mass gainer before Facebook needs more content that annoys. I love hashtagging, it's such a simple yet clever concept and it's helped me - and I'm sure many others - in so many ways. But it doesn't work on Facebook. So when you're gloating about how lashed up you're getting tonight and that you're #onittillyouvomit let me remind you of two rather simple things;

1) As I touched on earlier, Facebook doesn't even support hashtags. Idiot. So there's no need. Just write it like a normal person. And no, it's not particularly clever of you if you're aware of this and that you're doing it for some quirky humourous effect, it's been done before you. There's no point re-inventing the wheel.

And;

2) Even if the hashtag actually worked on Facebook (and this applies to Twitter users also), it still would most likely not relate to anyone else using that exact hashtag thus defeating its purpose. And to cover the contrary possibility, if you are following that hashtag feed then I'm sorry to say you are one sad, sad person.