I’m on a mission. To learn how teenagers use the social networks.

All I’ve gotten so far is that they like to hashtag. Apparently, people assume it’s because they don’t know how to “social network.” Is it that? Or is it that they like to tag things? There’s no right or wrong way to social network. The younger crowd is just defining how they want to social network. And we need to listen.

Here’s my theory:

The younger crowd is drawn to Instagram over all the other networks. Or so I hear! I feel like the hashtag obsession comes from this social network in particular. Yeah, it started with Twitter. And yeah, Twitter has its hashtag etiquette, less is more. But Instagram is different. I feel that hashtagging is way more helpful and beneficial, especially when placing photos into a pool for mass display.

The fact that people want to hashtag things makes sense to me. More exposure = more fun. When I first starting hashtagging on Twitter, it was natural to want to hashtag everything. Read about that here. I had to take it down a few-dozen notches. ; )

So here’s an example to prove my point. I went to SearchInstagram and looked at five photos. Four out of five had many many hashtags, more than would be accepted on Twitter.

This one had the most:

#bestoftheday #bestagram #webstagram #statigram #instago #instagood #igers #ignation #instagramers #instamood #instadaily #instahub #iphonesia #picoftheday #all_shots #populer #instamania #iphonography #igdaily #instamania #instago #iphoneonly #igaddict #jj #awesome #igaddict #photooftheday #cute #star

This one had the least:

#johnlennon #picoftheday #photooftheday #photos #happy #happiness #key #life

But even the “least” had eight hashtags. Eight!

Tagging purposes, addiction, fun or ignorance. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. 


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