Researching the Hashtag.
Modern historians face new and exciting problems associated with the growth of online
social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter. Many celebrities, actors, politicians, and
business people use social media to reach their audiences. It is also the main outlet of the young and intellectual. Anyone who has connection to the Internet and a device through which messages can be typed, can impact the world around them. Blogging websites like Tumblr and WordPress enable the everyday person to type their own thoughts on a topic and release it to the broader audience for circulation. It is no longer those with degrees in journalism or English and Literature that corner the market on disseminating ideas; every Tom, Dick and Harriet can do it now!
This brings up the question of what to do with all of this information. Some argue that the
glut of information is good for society at large, indeed for the perspicuity of the human race.
However, what is the historian to do with such a copious collection of blurbs, blogs, and rants
about their daily world? How does/will this impact the job of the amateur and professional
historian? How do you fit the musings of Stephen Colbert, Kanye West, or John Green into an
academic account of life in the early 21st century? Even better, why should tweets matter? What is the importance of 140 characters in the scheme of history? These are questions I seek to either answer, or for which I will pose another question.
As you read these words, the Library of Congress is recording every tweet sent out to the
Internet. That's right; the tweet you sent yesterday about your amazing bowel movement is on
there, as are the subtweets you and a (ex)friend exchanged a few months ago. It is slightly
embarrassing but also refreshing. Think about how open Millennials are with their thoughts and feelings. Never before has humankind had a feed, to borrow the expression from modern social media platforms, which contains all of the heartache and joviality experienced by our generation.
How important will it be in twenty or thirty years for some historian to research the development of social media and its impact on existing social structures and governments in Third World countries? Amazingly important is the answer. Think about this, in 2010 when the Arab Spring was happening, it was social media that, in many ways, sustained the movements.
Consider this: Journalists already use twitter as a means of backing up their stories. They
reference tweets made from governments, athletes, and those they are reporting on. This is
especially common in the sports world. Most athletes have twitter or some sort of social media, so it is a good way to get their uncensored thoughts without having to set up an interview.
Furthermore, if you break down their job, journalists do the same tasks of the historian only
without the hindsight to give clarity to the large events going on. They research, find primary
documentation, are chided when they only use secondary accounts (hearsay). So, if the journalists are using it why should the historians be opposed to using a person's tweets in their research?
The tricky part of all of this is how does a historian go about researching all of this? I think
there are several ways that it can be done, however, we will just focus on one. This is researching the hashtag. If you do not already know, the hashtag is a symbol, formerly known as the pound sign, that looks like a tic-tac-toe board. The hashtag is used to connect similar trends, or topics, that are going on around the world. If you wanted to say you were blessed and wanted to connect with people who were also blessed you would have to enter it in as #blessed. This sets the word apart so that fancy algorithms can connect all of the data together and you can see live streams of what people are saying about a current topic.
This has been useful in recent social movements domestically and abroad. Trending hashtags allow a lot of information to be seen by a lot of people, who then respond and add to the story. The greatest part of it is that people can share whatever they feel, negatively or positively, add the hashtag at the end and it all still stays together. You can also search hashtags, search what was trending on a certain day, for how long a topic trended, and how public opinion changed on that topic over time.
Now, imagine in twenty years looking back on events such as Ferguson, the Arab Spring, or
2016 Presidential Elections, and having at your fingertips the ability to understand the cultural
response at the time. Twitter, and the hashtag, will allow the future historian to gain an
understanding of overarching trends of support or backlash, and generally what groups they come from. This is a powerful tool in the hands of people today, and an enlightening one to historians in the future looking back on the early 21st century.
Technological innovations should also excite people about how interesting and fascinating
history can be. While there is still a lot of information to know, books to read, and citations to
painstakingly craft, it is so thrilling to have this window of opportunity open to historians. We
have long left the days of not having enough information, with the ancient civilization, and
transitioned into a phase of humanity where we might have almost too much information about ourselves. This will offer clearer insights and interpretations than is currently feasible in other fields of historical research. Plus, it will be interesting to read about the failed attempts to break the Internet, and the cultural impact of the Kardashians.
Alex Boggs is currently a history Master’s student at Liberty University. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and is somewhat less fluent in German than he was five years ago. He is a former exchange student at Philipps Universitaet Marburg in Germany. His primary interest in history is transnational cultural exchanges between Germany and the United States in the nineteenth century. He is also a budding documentarian; training to produce, direct, film, and edit his own historical documentaries. When he is not reading, writing, or pontificating on the deepest elements of history, he’s probably dreaming of fly-fishing, hiking, or evaluating oxymoronic expressions like jumbo shrimp. Most likely he’s complaining about how terrible the San Francisco 49ers and his fantasy football team look this year.
