The #art of the hashtag

by Portia Ladrido

Want to learn how to use #hohol? (Screen capture via Twitter.com)

Hashtags have been extremely helpful for those wanting to start conversations with people of the same interests and even more so for communities trying to track market trends. It has become an imperative dialectal shortcut that it actually opens up the potential of letting the consumer influence certain themes. One click on a hashtag and you’ll see varying posts about a specific subject — some completely useless, others tremendously necessary. This phenomena started on Twitter, then Instagram followed suit. A few months later, Facebook joined the party. Heck, even when texting people, you can’t help but insert a few unclickable hashtags here and there. Its popularity is rising by the minute to the point where people actually say hashtags in real life.

If you’re new to the social networking scene, hashtags can be one of the most confusing things the Internet has ever come up with. It is a bit muddy because people use them in entirely different ways. There are tweets preceded by hashtags with a word that’s irrelevant to the tweet and there are also posts with nothing but hashtags in them. There really are no rules on how to use this feature properly, which may have contributed to its relative complexity. Don’t fret about it too much though: the art of hashtagging is a lot like throwing a kid into a pool and realizing they have swimming reflexes — once you get the hang of tweeting and instagramming, hashtagging will come along naturally.

In any case, we’re here to try to make your online adventure as easy-peasy as possible so we dissected some perplexing (but incredibly amusing) acronyms that Filipinos use these days. Take note and brush up that hashtag vocab!

#sepanx

Separation Anxiety

How to use:

“Just finished watching the How I Met Your Mother finale. What am I going to do with my life now that it’s over??? #sepanx”

 

#momol

Make Out Make Out Lang

How to use:

“Kapag rainy season talaga, masaya kung may ka-#momol.”

 

#momox

Make Out Make Out Xtreme

How to use:

“Level up na from #momol to #momox”

 

#hohol

Hang Out Hang Out Lang

How to use:

“I miss my friends! #hohol soon you guys!”

 

#ggss

Gandang Ganda Sa Sarili

How to use:

(insert selfie here)

 

#momota

Make Out Make Out Tapos Awkward

How to use:

“About last night… #momota”

 

#ootd

Outfit Of The Day

How to use:

(insert photo of outfit shot in front of a mirror)

 

#odk

O Diyos Ko

How to use:

“Ang init init sa Pilipinas. #ODK”

 

#ngitext

Ngumingiti habang nagtetext

How to use:

“Uy si girlaloo may ka-#ngitext”

 

#tbt

How to use:

(insert photo of you during your awkward prepubescent days)