He said
“The widespread adoption of social media wasn’t a sure thing. There’s always been a lot of skepticism that people would ever get past sharing updates about what they had for breakfast, or what the latest celebrity gossip is—but the reality is, we’re all looking to connect and have thoughts and opinions that we want to share. We’re also pretty lazy. We want the most impact with the least amount of effort.
“The hashtag works because it’s universal (i.e., works anywhere you can type text, just like emoji), it doesn’t take much effort and is easy to learn (just imitate other people who use them), and the rewards are significant (relative to not using them). Social publishing platforms have also responded to their users’ use of hashtags by improving the signalto-noise ratio, and adding layers of meaning and context on top of trending topics.”
—Chris Messina, inventor of the hashtag, on thrivalfestival.com
