Hashtivism - Ricky Gil

Hashtivism, also known as hash tag activism, is a new trend in society. Hash tags are widely known and used on social media. They started off being used on what is known as Twitter and can now be used on many other social media sites too. As a result of social media being at the forefront of pop culture, hash tagging is being used by millions today. A hash tag is a word or phrase with a prefix of the hash tag symbol (#) and no spaces. Basically any words can be hash tagged on social media, but the point is to hash tag something that is currently trending on that social media site. For example, you might want to use the hash tag #PSUfootball on a football Saturday when Penn State is playing. You can then click on that hash tag and get redirected to a page and see what others are saying about the football game that day.
Hashtivism is everywhere since social media is used so often. All types of businesses and corporations use hastivism on twitter, Facebook, and and other social media sites. Not only are hash tags used on social media but they are now starting to be used in advertising too. Businesses have started using them on billboards and commercials to advertise their products. It puts their business name out there and also allows all types of ages to see that brand or product they are trying to advertise. They use hash tags as an advertising technique by spreading the word on social media. Since there are so many uses for hash tags, they can have a strong effect on society. They can raise awareness of certain topics, help a business gain popularity, or even simply categorize topics on a page.
On the other hand, there is something known as hacktivism which is much different than hashtivism. Hacktivism is the act of hacking into computers, also known as breaking into a computer system. This is not like hashtivism, except that computers must be used in both situations. Hacktivism is a big problem in our country today. Recently, there was a large issue with Target computer systems where credit card numbers were being stolen from their database. Computer hacking is a negative action while hashtivism is mostly positive, however the internet is involved in both situations.