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Writer Susan Orlean Digs The #Really

Susan Orlean explains the #, aka the hashtag. Twitter gave the symbol new life and Orlean appreciates its new function. She writes about the # in the New Yorker. Are you a hashtagger? Tell us your favorite hashtags.

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We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

One Private-sector Frog

My favorite movie hashtag:

Then this is a day of independence for all the Munchkins and their descendants! #If any!
Random Listener

Maybe I’m old (I’m 37), but I still don’t see any value in Twitter, or especially hashtags. I guess it’s entertaining, but that is really all I see there.
peter holsberg

# is called hash

#something is a hashtag
Justin Kimmons

Agony. I’m 1 hour from moving out of my home, and I feel so repulsed by the silliness we seem so determined to explain away as networking and socializing, that I just have to sit down, find your website, and comment. Twitter should be called Squawker, as the latter word more aptly describes the stupid and annoying methods of communication that more and more people are growing to consider normal and healthy. Great story, and cheers to all of us resisting the noise!
andrea fishman

Sigh..the more things change, the more they stay the same. What interests me is that Ms.Orleans, whose writing I very much admire, made no connections between the hashtag functions and their clear written predecessors, the parenthetical comment and the ellipsis (see Sigh…above). Not to mention their dramatic predecessor, the aside.

This matters not because those of us who know about these linguistic turns are so much smarter than those who don’t, but because 20- and 30-somethings who think, Wow! Hashtags!! need context. There’s nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel for a new vehicle. But there is something wrong with not knowing it’s a reinvention.

Andrea Fishman
Director, PA Writing and Literature Project
West Chester University
West Chester, PA
Elizabeth Knoeber

How rediculous and inane; it amazes me what people spend their time doing
http://www.findingtimothy.org Mary Elizabeth McIlvane

As a writer, not in Ms Orleans class, but with a sense of value and respect for the words I express.Her words about the tags etc. are meaningless to me. My verbal and written communications shall not be controlled by the digital, spoken, or written style of the moment.

Look at how many words it took for her to explain herself. That was the conversation, not her hash marks.
And yes, I am a young old adult! I came to life in the latter part of the third decade of the first half of the past century.

And a great new year to you Robin, I enjoy listening to you persist to arrive at the heart of the issue!
Mathias

The 37-year-old Random Listener should have ended his comment with #getOffMyLawn.
http://kevinmaness.info Kevin Maness

Nice little interview. I get so tired of hearing dismissive, uninformed puff-pieces on technology and new media that I kinda cringe when I hear a mention of “Twitter,” “Facebook,” or whatever. But Orlean sounded like a sensitive observer (and participant) whose comments capture the everyday creativity that users of new media employ as they/we push the boundaries of each medium.

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