Did I see this coming? Actually no.
Am I surprised? Eh, not so much.
It’s official, Facebook is bringing hash tags to their site. In a technical way of looking at it, the company itself had been using hash tags for some time through Instagram, since they own it and all, but now they are actually using it on the Facebook site.
Why didn’t I see this coming? Mainly due to the fact that I just never thought it’d give in and use them. Facebook has gone on for some time now without them and personally, I viewed hash tags as purely a Twitter thing. Anytime hash tags were brought up, I thought of Twitter. So, I just never expected that Facebook would ever need to use them. They already boast more users than Twitter as is.
Furthermore, if I didn’t see it coming then why am I not surprised? Because, even though Facebook has more users, in reality it has seemed to be losing momentum lately. It has been widely said that Facebook is losing its younger crowd. Less teenagers and the like using it and more adults. The latter of which is the reason for the former. Kids want freedom in their social networking and as more and more adults join Facebook, more and more teenagers leave. Luckily Facebook owns Instagram, because that seems to be the new hype along with new emerging social networks, like Vine. So, is it possible that these hash tags are just a desperate ploy to get the younger crowd back? It could be, but more than likely it’s something else.
That something else is online discussion. We can all agree that the content is there, yet Facebook hasn’t been as successful as Twitter has in that area. By simple deduction, we can infer that the difference would be hash tags. With hash tags, users are able to click on them to bring them into another area loaded with others talking about the same thing. A prime example is television shows. I see posts about television all of the time on Facebook and with the simple addition of hash tags users can allow others to see their posts on the show.
Still, no matter how many pound signs you clutter your post with, privacy concerns remain. If you set your privacy right, others won’t see the posts.