Computer-Mediated Discourse: The #Hashtag Trend - Research Paper Example

It is from this that other organizations adopted the practice to suit their needs. Hashtags have been differentiated by various organizations to provide functionality that suit their needs. They are used by consumers to find product information whereas producers employs them for advertising. In twitter, the website that invented the hashtag they are used to help users find the trending topics by scrolling through their tweets. These trending topics are listed on the left-hand side of the twitter stream thus helping the users find information quickly.

In Facebook, hashtags are used to take the user to other pages that are accessible to them based on the other user’s privacy settings. It also helps by placing the trending topics in the top right-hand corner of the users news feed (Patterson, par. 3). Producers such as the coca cola company use this method to advertise their products. In Instagram, hashtags are used to view photos similar to yours. This works when you hashtag your picture, and the website automatically creates a link to websites with similar pictures and subject.

This works well with people searching for information related to certain aspects of their life. YouTube uses hashtags for comments. This works to help other users in directing them to the websites with videos to which the hashtags direct you. This is especially important to producers who want to advertise and gain user acceptance through YouTube. On Kickstarter, hashtags are used to sort data so that users can quickly find projects they are interested in investing in. This is especially important for investors who want to invest in individual communities or cultures.

Hashtags can be used in mass broadcasting such as in televisions by businesses to promote their products. This is known as means of promoting backchannel of the internet based discussions. The hashtag is placed on the corners of the television or even appear as