Presentation given at Northeastern University's English Graduate Student Association Conference in March 2014. This is a rough set of slides in search of an idea for an article: more thinking out loud about stuff than something well-formed. Topics include Twitter, hashtags, and specific content like #bostonstrong. Slides are hyperlinked and cited. Questions / comments can be directed to mcgrath.ja@husky.neu.edu

1. #Hashtags as #Spectacle
#BostonStrong
and
The Materiality of Metadata
Jim McGrath, Northeastern University Twitter: @JimMc_Grath
EGSA Conference (The Spectacular!)
Northeastern University (March 29th, 2014)

2. “Information overload
might not have increased
the rate at which
disasters occur, but it has
exponentially increased
the rate at which they’re
witnessed.”
Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock (2013)

3. April 15th, 2013 (4:12pm)
(View Tweet on Twitter)

4. Our Marathon
northeastern.edu/marathon

5. #BostonStrong
(Source: Our Marathon)

6. (Source: Our Marathon)

7. (Source: Our Marathon)

8. #BostonTearParty

9. #sportscry

10. #prayforboston

11. “Digital Dualism” (Nathan Jurgenson, 2011)
“Digital dualists believe
that the digital world is
“virtual” and the physical
world “real.” This bias
motivates many of the
critiques of sites like
Facebook and the rest of
the social web…”

12. “…the digital and physical
are increasingly
meshed, and [I] want to
call this opposite
perspective that implodes
atoms and bits rather
than holding them
conceptually separate
augmented reality.”
“Digital Dualism” (Nathan Jurgenson, 2011)

13. #bostonstrong
(Source: Twitter via WEEI)

14. BOSTON STRONG

15. (Source: Our Marathon)

16. (Source: Our Marathon)

17. Jim’s First Tweet (June 18, 2007)

18. (Source: OED)
Metadata

19. Jim’s First Tweet (June 18, 2007)
No Metadata 

20. Jim’s First Tweet (June 18, 2007)
METADATA :O

21. Jim’s First Tweet (June 18, 2007)

22. (Source: Twitter)

23. The #Origin of #Hashtags
on #Twitter
(October 2007)
(Source: Chris Messina’s Blog *FactoryCity])

24. The #Origin of #Hashtags on
#Twitter
(October 2007)
“I’m more interested in simply having
a better eavesdropping experience on Twitter.”
(Source: Chris Messina’s Blog *FactoryCity])

25. The #Origin of #Hashtags on
#Twitter
(October 2007)
• easy to learn
• flexible
• “folksonomic”
(Source: Chris Messina’s Blog *FactoryCity])

26. “Unlike traditional tagging systems
used for information
archival, Twitter hashtags can serve
either as a label for identifying
topically relevant streams of
message or a prompt for
commenting and sharing.“
“Hashtags often fill a dual role as
both a topical identifier
(e.g., #iPhone) and a symbol of a
community membership
(e.g., #VoteForObama).”
#Hashtags
(Source:Lin et al) [#BigBirds])

27. #Hashtags
“*A+ hashtag’s publicity and
legitimacy is driven by social
exposure as part of a process
of complex contagion:
hashtags grow because they
are adopted by users with
social connections to one
another, and by users’
repeated use and spreading
the word to others of
interests.”
(Source: Lin et al [#BigBirds])

28. Twitter as Commodity
(Source: CNBC)

29. Twitter and The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings
(Source: Rogers; Twitter’s Media Blog)

30. Twitter and the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings
(Source: Rogers; Twitter’s Media Blog)

31. #bostonstrong
(Source: Twitter via WEEI)

32. “We focus on the emergent use of
hashtags #prayforboston and
#bostonstrong. “
“The first hashtag #prayforboston
became popular immediately after the
bombings, used by both Boston and non-
Boston users, to send comfort messages
to Bostonians.”
“The second hashtag #bostonstrong was
populated two days after and gained its
highest popularity around April 20 due to
the “Boston Strong” community events.
This hashtag reflects a sense of
community identity of Bostonians.”
(Source: Lin [2014])
#prayforboston and #bostonstrong

33. “Outside Boston, the level of
interests for Twitter users in
expressing comfort (in terms of
#prayforboston volume) and
community identity (in terms of
#bostonstrong volume) vary with
cities. The hashtag #prayforboston
had a wider reach than the hashtag
#bostonstrong – among the 25
cities considered in this analysis,
#prayforboston appeared in 23
cities, while #bostonstrong only
appeared in 17 cities.”
(Source: Lin [2014])

34. “Similar to the detected
fear, the use of the two
hashtags exhibit a ripple
effect corresponding to the
geographical proximity of
cities…"
(Source: Lin [2014])

35. What does #bostonstrong mean to users?
"We developed Boston
Strong off of Livestrong
and Army Strong, because
it was something simple
people could get behind."
(Source: WEEI)

36. What does #bostonstrong mean to users?
"It was something my dad had
always said along the way
with his dealings with the
Boston people and the
salesmen. It was always
Boston Strong this, and
Boston Strong that. I
remember that from my
dad, and it just seemed to fit
in that situation. That’s why I
put the tweet out.”
(Source: WEEI)

37. "I just thought it was a
takeoff on the Livestrong
[Lance Armstrong's
foundation]," Clough said.
"But for me, this was my
dad's thing. To me it was
more family and personal
more than anything else."
What does #bostonstrong mean to Twitter users?
(Source: WEEI)

38. (Source: Our Marathon)

39. (Source: Twitter)

40. (Source: Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce)

41. “From the 1980s concept of cyberspace to 1990s software such as
Netscape Navigator, interacting with computerize data and media
has been consistently framed in spatial terms…
Thus, “navigating the Internet” includes following hyperlinks, using
menus commonly provided by Web sites, as well as
using search engines.”
(Source: Manovich, 2001)
Navigating and Exploring the Web at The End of the 20th Century

42. Web browsers in the 1990s
(Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator)
Metaphors and mechanisms that privilege “a single user navigating
through web sites rather than more communal experiences, such as
newsgroups, mailing lists, text-based chat…”
“a single user navigating through an unknown territory rather than
a member of a group, even if this group is a crowd of strangers.”
(Source: Manovich 2001)

43. TweetDeck

44. (Source: Watchmen)

45. (Source: Miroshnichenko. 2013)

46. (Source: Twitter)

47. The fundamental difference
between the Viral Editor and
the brain is that the Viral
Editor is capable of capturing
his own historical
states, which make up his
unique, archival memory, and
this memory is accessible at
any point in time and from
any point in time.
(Source: Miroshnichenko. 2013)

48. #Hashtags and their relationship to other modes of writing
and circulating content online
• Active engagement vs. Passive consumption
• (the limits of this binary)
• How we use media / how media is changing
• Uses in the construction of public identities
• Communal dimension of hashtags
• Archival implications
• Potential for researchers
#Thanks
#nofilter

49. Works Cited
Bradford, Rob. “The Birth of ‘Boston Strong’: How A Father’s Message Led to a Historic
Slogan.” WEEI. 2014
Jurgenson, Nathan. “Digital Dualism and The Fallacy of Web Objectivity.” Cyborgology Post,
2011
Lin, Yu-Ru. “The Ripples of Fear, Comfort, and Community Identity During the Boston
Bombings.” 2014.
Lin, Yu-Ru et al. “#BigBirds Never Die: Understanding Social Dynamic of Emergent Hashtags.”
2013
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. 2001
Miroshnichenko, Andrey. Man as Media: The Emancipation of Authorship. 2013.
Messina, Chris. “Groups for Twitter; or, A Proposal for Twitter Tag Channels.” 2007.
Our Marathon: The Boston Bombing Digital Archive
Rogers, Simon. “The Boston Bombing: How journalists used Twitter to tell the story.” Twitter
Media Blog. 2013
Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. 2013.