Two Dumb Questions About Social Media

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Rihana, Feb 12, 2021.

  1. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    1. In a single FB post, why do people put so many hash tags?
    Like on inaugural day, with a picture of their family dinner table, a FB friend put:
    #BidenPresident #timetocelebrate #biryani #gajarhalwa #MyPresident #GodBlessAmerica

    The hashtags were longer than the rest of the post. What is the purpose of the hashtags? In particular, the #garjarhalwa?

    2. On places like Nextdoor, a person finds a wallet and posts, "if the owner can identify what is in the wallet, you can claim it ... meet me at ..."
    Three hours later, the wallet and its grateful relieved owner are reunited. People start lauding the finder thusly:
    "Good to see such honesty",
    "We need more such stories",
    "Kudos to you ..." and
    "God Bless you and your family ..."
    "you are setting a good example for your kids."

    Why the outpour of compliments? Is it a millennial thing? Shouldn't returning a lost wallet be default? Isn't keeping it a crime? If I complete a day without committing a crime no one compliments me.
    .
     
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  2. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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  3. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    Your first example was so funny, people at home are wondering why I have this idiotic grin on my face.
    To answer your question, I don’t really know. As for the second question I think people have become so jaded that even a simple act of decency has become Nobel-worthy.
     
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  4. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    It was actually some very S. Indian dishes. I put gajarhalwa for #anonymity. : ) : )
    Perhaps. I mean I can understand applauding when a dog lost due to the carelessness of its owner is reunited with owner rather than go to the city animal shelter where it is put down by rules after 2 weeks (not sure). But lost wallet.. no heroism there. Yes, if a homeless person returns a lost wallet.. all praise is totally deserved.. and so is the GoFundme campaign that crops up.

    I don't know if I am imagining things... I seem to read more cases of careless pet owners in the last couple of years. Maybe just more people are getting dogs as pets.
     
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  5. Hopikrishnan

    Hopikrishnan Platinum IL'ite

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    1. Biriyani & Gajarhalwa and the rest of it ...were summed up in a song with the lyric "These are a few of my favorite things...". Julie Andrews sung that in a movie. Sentences got reduced to emoticons for the lazy and the inept. Hashtags are an intermediate stage, things for which emoticons don't exist.

    2. Why the profuse praise on the internet for returning a lost wallet ? Those are from people who live in places where there is a general lack of trust. And no good deed goes unpunished: The wallet-returnee might get into trouble when the reunited owner claims that there was $580.82 when s/he lost it, but it got returned with only $10.81 . In such societies, potential wallet returnees would/should be well advised never to pick up "shiny" objects.

    Iraqui dad to son: You see a shiny thing... don't run and pick it up. It is always connected to a trigger of an IED underneath.
     
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  6. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Illai. These are in Nextdoor where the comments are from local people. Affluent area. Plus almost all homes and commercial buildings have security cameras now. Even more reason to return anything a camera might record you picking up.

    Oh.. sadly, that can happen anywhere. I vaguely recall reading a new story where a good Samaritan was charged with moving a person injured in an automobile crash. The moving was to make the injured a bit more comfortable (!) till help arrived but was medically not the best, well, move.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2021
  7. KayKuyil

    KayKuyil Silver IL'ite

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    Nothing is dumb in social media! :biggrin: With that said, let me take a stab at explaining.

    1. Use of Hashtags:
    This is related to trending tags. Generally, people search for posts on trending topics using hashtags. So when you add multiple hashtags, the chance of your post becoming visible to the user increases. If you see in Twitter, there are loads of people who promote their business or video links etc by adding trending hashtags. More hashtags, more visibility. Again, Usage of popular food items like biriyani will again give the desired result. (Not for the salivating searcher who probably had a hiccup seeing the family photo among other genuine gajar halwa posts :eek:

    2. As to over-complimenting, not just compliments, our society’s collective sense of ‘goodness’ oozes out in social media posts. Hardly a third would have actually complimented the person in real life but hey it’s social media, put on the persona you want. Same thought process as the gyaan-sharing relatives in WhatsApp group. “Nee yaarunu enakku theriyum, naama yaarunu oorukku theriyum”(Translation: I know who you really are, the world knows who we really are)moment. “Kaasa Panama? Compliments dhaane”
     
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  8. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    OK, I get the basic purpose of a hashtag. So others interested in the same topic will see the post. The other use is kind of deceptive -- use a (always) trending though not very related hashtag to get visibility for one's posts and videos.

    But, this is in FB in personal posts that are probably seen only by their 250-300 friends. The person puts multiple hashtags in posts about dinner table, went for a hike, hubby surprised me with tickets to Bill Maher, baked the bread out of my wits in lockdown, cold outside and warm chai inside, Diwali mithai last piece gone, finally took down holiday lights, ... So, why the hashtags? Friends are going to search for those hashtags? Or they make these posts visible to anybody? !!

    Anyway, not an urgent question .. just that some people I consider to be well educated, well read, well-traveled, etc do this.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2021
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  9. hrastro

    hrastro Platinum IL'ite

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    Let me start off with this - what used to be our school/ college/ family friends/ community - is now social media.

    So most people on social media want to be a part of the issue under discussion.
    They want to be seen as having "Good/Right Opinions" !

    And most importantly, they want to be seen/heard. They want attention from others. They want to be acknowledged that they exist.

    I dont know about facebook, I assume it is the same.
    But on linkedin and twitter, if you click on the hashtag, you can see other articles that have been tagged with the same words.
    So for instance, you have made gajarhalwa and you want people who are looking for biryani to see your post - it is a way to pull attention to it. And if on that particular day, almost all the people are talking about BidenPresident, then that is a Golden way to get attention to your photograph - it gets SEEN by more number of people!

    Many who understand this would put up an ad about themselves and tag the most discussed topic of the day !

    Example - there is a flood somewhere - people are looking for info to contact the rescue team / family / friends etc, so that info is tagged with FloodRescue.
    On that particular day, another person who is selling insurance can put up his ad, contact details and tag it with FloodRescue. His advt gets seen by more people!


    When an accident happens, you've seen passerby audience surrounding them, they stay there and talk about the incident long after the police/ambulance arrives and takes away the injured people!

    In a wedding ceremony you would have seen hitherto unconnected people standing in groups and talking about how the bride and bridegroom looks and how the dinner was tasty etc!

    This is the online equivalent of that! People love to express themselves - it is not about the incident, it is not about the compliment, not even about the morals!

    It is just the FOMO - fear of missing out - on an opportunity to be heard, to be seen, to be acknowledged that they exist !

    Keep Smiling
    HR
     
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  10. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    Who said??
    ................
    When I was the admin of a popular fb food Group we used to conduct some activities. Say for eg: One had to cook and showcase special dishes on pongal . But how do I know one particular post is for competition, because many people post many other dishes there. So we admins used to insist on them to use the hashag like #pongalcompetition2020 . This hashtag helps me search the dishes and help me judge the dish. But here's what people do.
    # p o n g a l c o m p e t i t i o n 2 0 2 0 or
    # pongal #competition #2020 , #mydishforpongal2020competition, many such unwanted Combinations . This doesn't help the admins at all. Then their dish would be lost in the pool of other dishes. If not judged n given a prize they will create one more post #bantheadmin. They haven't considered my post. This is cheating. I put a lot of effort to make a wonderful post for #pongalcompetition2020. Here they will use correct hashtag but not in the original completion post.
    So the very purpose of hashtag is to make the search easy. It works good in public twitter, instagram posts etc.
    The person who put #garjarhalwa - did she/he have Pic of biryani n garjarhalwa ? Was she celebrating new president's win with these two dishes?? If yes then she's done the right thing by putting a hashtag. Her post would pop up when someone is searching #garjarhalwa in the search bar.
    It helps people in promotions etc. .

    In instagram apart from following pages did you know we can follow hash tags. So I checked what hashtags I am following currently. Some are #homedecor, #gardening, #miscarriage , #ttccommunity,#adoption etc.
    So I don't have to follow a particular account for getting any tips about home decor. Any public profile who uses the hashtag #homedecor I get their post on my page. Isn't this super helpful ?
    A person has a business page and uses all kinds of hash tags , Like you mentioned the hasgtags much longer than original post helps their business to reach more people..
    Say they use hash tags : #food #foodporn #foodie #foodindia #indiafood #garjarhalwa #biryani and 100 other hasgtags. They pop up when I search something like #foodindia . When I go n View their post, If I like his content I follow his page. He gets more n more followers. .
    This is the sole purpose of hashtags.
     
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