How far will #hashtags go?
by PATRICK V. MIGUEL
WE LIKE the idea that we are contributing to the betterment of society. And when you are stuck at home during a pandemic, the best place to do this is in the expansive digital architecture of social media. A landscape that has become a dump of cancel culture, trolls, performativity, micro-trends, and endless brain-rot ‘hot takes’ that gave me lobotomy.
I say this with pure sincerity: “Welcome to the 2020s.”
#NoToOnlineClasses, #BlackLivesMatter, #JunkAntiTerrorLaw, #MassTestingNOW, #SaveTheTurtles, #JusticeFor[Someone]—these hashtags, among others, have resurfaced and resurged within apps we have scrolled on. And in a social media culture where you are alienated for being ‘silent’ and hastily labeled as ‘apolitical,’ you feel obligated to post and show t...