What Does the Hashtag Symbol Actually Mean And Where Did it Come From?

It’s September…School’s Starting…Let’s Learn and Update

As early as 1910, the hashtag symbol, #, was described as the symbol on military jackets. Hash referred to stripes.
In the United States, the symbol, #, was called the pound sign when it came after a number. Pound refers to a unit of weight, i.e. lb.
The number sign was prominent on typewriters to denote numbers and became standard.
In the 1960s touch tone dialing came into being and the telecommunication industry adopted an “Octothorpe” symbol. The Octo portion refers to the 8 points of the symbol and was used by Bell Labs, primarily for fun - “#”.
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MORE MODERN TIMES

Technology developer Chris Messina tweeted one year after Twitter was launched, “How do you feel about using #(pound) for groups?”
His idea was not well received…
Forging ahead, he still chose the symbol as it was the easiest keyboard character to read on his Nokia phone back in 2007. His persistence credited him as the one man who brought the concept of tagging social media groups or topics with a hashtag.

• In 2009, Twitter added an option for users to search for hashtags.
• In 2010, Instagram launched and photos were tagged with hashtags.
• In 2013, Facebook adopted hashtags
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IMPORTANCE OF HASHTAGS IN 2023

Now, hashtags are creatively used to reach target audiences and promote content. Examples are:
     #Feelings
     #Whatnots
     #feelingspluswhatnots
     #BUYTHEFEELING by Carol-Rose Marshall, a non-fiction work sold on Amazon.

#FiveStarReviews
     #TheFeeling “has all the elements of a compelling story that engages the reader.”
     #TheFeeling “will find little rest on your nightstand.”
     #Riveting - Read “The Feeling”