When I first joined Twitter I started to notice that people would often add a pound sign and a word or acronym to the end of a tweet. Commonly referred to as hashtags, they are used to give context to a tweet, make discussions and conference information easily searchable, and to group tweets together like in the case of a disaster,which is what started this whole #hashtag phenomenon.
Most of the time I know what a hashtag stands for, but being somewhat of a tech newbie and all, occasionally I still see things that leave me clueless. So I have compiled a list of commonly used #hashtags and a quick definition of them. Some of these are obvious to the average user, and others you may not have heard.
If you have a friend or colleague joining Twitter, feel free to send them this as a guide. It might help you avoid awkward questions until they get the hang of it. Or you can always favorite the page for your grandma to use when she gets tired of Facebook.
- #nom – Nom, nomming, and noms are all used to describe the act of stuffing ones face with delicious food. If you search nom, you will find a bazillion results a day with various twitpics and details to make your mouth water and give you a pang of jealousy as you look into the cup of noodles in front of you.
- #fml – Fuck My Life. If you can’t think of even one instance where this hashtag would come in handy for you then bravo, you win. You are the happiest person alive with no problems and incredible luck. Fuck you.
- #l337 – leet, as in elite. If you don’t know the definition you definitely are not one of them and therefore cannot use this hashtag. You can however use it when describing others that qualify for the title, like Sean Percival and Tony Adam.
- #nsfw- Not Safe For Work is widely used to let the reader know that the link they are about to click on contains nudity. Which means you might want to favorite that tweet for later, when your boss isn’t standing at your cubicle discussing TPS reports.
- #ftw – For The Win is used to express ones enthusiasm for something. As in, “Noodz of Megan Fox #ftw!”
- #Caturday – known to muggles as Saturday, Caturday is the day of the week that we celebrate Cats! Many people post pics of their cat or links to lolcats. Be sure to pay tribute properly, and remember all our base are belong to them.
- #tth – Tweeting To Hard. Nuff said, you know who you are, and you are so aware of your addiction that you created a hashtag to announce that you realize you have a problem. That or you are one of those people who are tweeting every five minutes and we are using this hashtag to talk about you and your tweeting problem. There is even an entire website dedicated to this one.
- #omgwtfbbq – Oh My God, What The Fuck, Barbecue – here we combine two previous favorites and tack on a little BBQ at the end; cuz let’s face it, who doesn’t love BBQ. This hashtag is used to explain the unexplainable and to mark occasions that you would normally use WTF for. People have also used it to mock those that obsessively use OMG and WTF. I have heard one other version of this hashtag, that was quite entertaining, Oh My God, What The Fuck, Bitch Be Quiet.
- #fb – Facebook. This handy little hashtag will update your Facebook status when you send a tweet out through Twitter. So if you are in a hurry and only have time to waste on one social network, you can get a two for one. This one requires you first install the Selective Tweets Facebook app.
- #fail – Quite simply it means someone or something failed. Anywhere from a disastrous first date, to anyone walking out of a Wayans Brothers flick, you can expect to see #fail at the end of many tweets.
There is still a debate on whether or not people should be using #hashtags in their tweets, some feel it goes against the concept of “what are you doing”. Personally I use them whenever I feel like it, and possibly abuse them at times. What can I say, I like a good pounding.
