Ever since my good friend Zeynep Tufekci brought me a revolutionary t-shirt from Egypt, I’ve been fascinated by the popularization of hashtags outside of Twitter. And by outside, I don’t mean on blogs, Facebook, and Flickr, where they’re increasingly appearing, but offline. T-shirts, posters, graffiti, and protest signs all make use of hashtag symbolism; rather than long slogans (or in most cases, in addition to), we’ve cut down our symbols into bite-sized pieces, for better or worse. Even the Obama campaign has a hashtag-themed fundraising t-shirt. Here are just a few samplings (photos are from around the blogosphere):
![feb20boston](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/feb20boston-228x220.jpg)
![egyptian-protester-carrying-facebook-jan25-sign](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/egyptian-protester-carrying-facebook-jan25-sign-293x220.jpg)
![bp2](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bp2-300x200.jpg)
![libya](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/libya-165x220.jpg)
![Screen shot 2011-10-16 at 12.53.20 PM](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Screen-shot-2011-10-16-at-12.53.20-PM-291x220.png)
![5474047978_f81d7af0b0_z](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/5474047978_f81d7af0b0_z-293x220.jpg)
![latuff_jan25_e](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/latuff_jan25_e-214x220.gif)
![Screen shot 2011-10-16 at 11.56.25 AM](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Screen-shot-2011-10-16-at-11.56.25-AM-180x220.png)
![5346938095_16b39068ea_z](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/5346938095_16b39068ea_z-300x200.jpg)
![a1297_21995_TyxQ1I_700](https://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/a1297_21995_TyxQ1I_700-300x200.jpg)
If you have any other excellent examples (particularly from Syria), do send them my way.
One reply on “#Hashtagging Real Life”
[…] 34 I have personally compiled photographs of offline hashtag appearances here: https://jilliancyork.com/2011/10/16/hashtagging-real-life/. 35 The framework presented within the paper “Blogs and Bullets: New Media in Contentious […]