August 23rd is International Hashtag Day, because the world really needed a holiday dedicated to a keyboard symbol that once upon a time was only used to help your grandma call customer service. The humble # started as the “pound sign,” then graduated with honors as the “number sign,” and eventually went through a midlife crisis before rebranding as the hashtag. Now it’s the internet’s equivalent of duct tape: slap it on anything and hope it sticks.
Hashtags can get quite big. Or people can get quite small. #samething (Kanghyejin/depositphotos)
Today, we’re expected to honor the little symbol that turned your cousin’s vacation pics into #blessed #wanderlust #takemeback #notanad posts. The hashtag is no longer just a way to organize ideas; it’s a personality test, a marketing scam, and a cry for attention—sometimes all at once.
#History: From Landline to Timeline
The hashtag’s story is one of the weirdest glow-ups in tech history. For decades, it was just hanging around, minding its own and everyone else’s business on telephones. Then, in 2007, Twitter users started slapping #s in front of words to organize conversations, and suddenly the symbol had more clout than the exclamation point. Sorry, more clout than the exclamation point!
What once summoned a robotic voice saying, “Please enter your account number, followed by the pound sign,” now summons angry mobs on Twitter with #CancelCulture or an endless stream of gym selfies tagged #fitspo.
Look at the little pound sign – it has no idea here what its future holds. #misery (BrianAJackson/depositphotos)
#TooMuchOfAGoodThing
Of course, we humans have no chill whatsoever. What started as a simple way to track topics quickly turned into an ugly hashtag spam, minus the spiced ham. One innocent #MondayMotivation post is fine; thirty-four hashtags in a row makes you look like you just lost a fight with your keyboard while yelling at the clouds.
Instagram influencers are the worst offenders (in more ways than one), treating hashtags like cheap confetti at a wedding. A single picture of a latte gets buried under #coffee #coffeetime #coffeelover #instacoffee #butfirstcoffee #muglife #latteart #caffeineaddict #beanyourbest. By the time you finish scrolling through them, your coffee’s gone cold, and your heart has gone colder.
And don’t even get me started on LinkedIn. People are out there seriously typing things like #leadership #synergy #networking #grindset as if hashtags can make their job titles less boring.
There is such a thing as too many hashtags, despite what influencers might tell you. #justuseone #ortwo (tostphoto/depositphotos)
#HolidayForWhatNow?
So what should we actually be doing on International Hashtag Day? Do we carve a pound sign into a cake? Do we gather around a glowing blue bird (RIP Twitter) and chant #NeverForget? Apparently, the “official” way to celebrate is to post online using—you guessed it—hashtags. So essentially, we’re throwing a birthday party where the only gift is shouting the birthday person’s name really loudly. Over and over.
Still, it’s hard to be mad. The hashtag is a weird cultural glue. It unites strangers, starts movements, and, occasionally, helps you find out if anyone else saw that weird cloud that looks like Danny DeVito. So on August 23rd, raise your phones high and salute the once-humble #. Without it, how would we ever know that your cat is #livingherbestlife or that your vacation was #notsponsored?
After all, hashtags may be annoying, overused, and deeply cringe—but at least they’re better than LinkedIn hashtags. #SorryNotSorry.
