The Hashtags

Hashtags should also have ethics

On December 9, 2020, the three most ridiculous hashtags in the history of Pakistani social media were trending. These three hashtags created in Urdu were a manifestation of the moral degradation that was more evident than the thousands of people who were criticizing these hashtags or popularizing their irrelevant posts on social media. The same hashtags were used indiscriminately. To be honest, that day I felt as if the consumer mentality had killed morality with the dagger of technology and a herd of human-shaped animals, carrying the corpse of morality, was moving towards an unknown graveyard. In this case, the demand that not only social media but also "hashtags" must be ethically justified, otherwise it will not take long for the water to rise above the head. Whether legislation should be enacted or new institutions should be set up for this is a separate issue, but if the growing immorality on social media is not stopped, perhaps even the metaphor of "inferiority complex" will not be able to express our moral inferiority. Like many other changes, today we have seen how an innocent little hashtag has turned into a dangerous weapon; This interesting article is about the same. The "pound sign" (#) known as the "hash", which has been the symbol of the number for years, was first coined by Chris Messina on August 24, 2007, as a "hashtag" on Twitter. Introduced, its main purpose was to make it easier to search for tweets related to a particular topic or point: a hashtag was added at the beginning of the word to be noticed and thus made prominent in online searches. Then it happened that social media started to reach its development and popularity. At the same time, the "hashtag" not only developed but also became a metaphor for the popularity of a topic on social media. What is the "trend" on social media today? What is more popular? The most important measure of this is the relevant hashtags. But the issue of social media and hashtags is no different from "like a soul, like an angel". A group of so-called "social media experts" took advantage of the hashtags, only to find out which hashtags are "trending" today. They just started adding these hashtags to their posts, especially tweets, so that (despite being irrelevant to those hashtags) they could get attention. These social media experts had nothing to do with morality, civility, civility, distinction and politeness. They were just following the motto of "If they are infamous, they will not have a name" (and are still doing so). Not that hashtags have always been wrong. Hashtags against political and social atrocities and injustices have given a new lease of life to protests on social media, while also helping to eradicate evils. At the same time, the time has come for hashtags to be used as a political weapon, a trend that continues to this day. The social media wings of political parties also recruit people who can "boost" a post in the shortest possible time. It does not matter to them whether they are morally conscious or loyal to their political party. They just have to be able to create new hashtags and create "flashy" social media posts. For them, just this "ability" is enough. The unbridled freedom of expression in the name of "freedom of expression" on social media, combined with the irresponsible creation and use of hashtags, has sparked a new rage: Began to post on the media; right wrong, civilized uncivilized no imprisonment. Just as water comes in its pencil, so too man has a general tendency to be inferior in nature in matters of morality. It is very difficult to have a party of sincere friends and no jokes or gossip. Everyone is attracted to the loud abuse in the neighbourhood and Tadir remembers it. This is the same trend of moral degradation that has been thwarted by social media. Swearing on social media is heard all over the world. And if the abuse is in the form of a "hashtag", it resonates even more. Most of the political parties in the world use their social media wings to create new hashtags, then in a short time the posts/tweets using these hashtags are flooded; retweet, share and re-share. There is a series of hashtags that each time include specific hashtags that are meant to be popularized, that is, to "trend". In the meantime, some people are only concerned with getting their posts read by as many people as possible and making them "popular". They use the crutch of "trending hashtags" to fulfil their desire. Twitter automatically manages to display the latest list of hashtags "trending" not only around the world but also in a particular country at a particular time. This lets Twitter users know promptly what topic is being talked about the most in the world (or in any country): by isolating tweets with a "trending hashtag" with just one click can see; And if you want, you can get one of your tweets with one or more of these hashtags. The purpose of the hashtag is to provide convenience to the users, not to create a storm of gossip and rudeness. We must not forget that technology is neither harmful nor useful, but we are the ones who use it for a specific purpose to make it harmful or useful. But the question remains, when will we start using our "moral filter" again? The same moral filter that we inherited from our elders, which we used to decide for ourselves whether or not to say something in public. As long as this filter is not "on", artificial intelligence filters with artificial intelligence will not be able to harm us.