For my hashtag topic, I chose to look up what is being said about Child Labor on Twitter. I researched the hashtag #childlabor to see what was being said. I found that while some Tweets are genuinely trying to raise awareness about actual child labor and how to stop it, there are just as many Tweets where the phrase “child labor” is used sarcastically or jokingly. For example, I found many Tweets using the hashtag to raise awareness about ending child labor, including this one:

However, not all uses of the hashtag #childlabor are constructive. I also found many examples that use the phrase jokingly. For instance, I  found a random person in Nebraska using the hashtag to talk about how she made her kids drive her to the store to buy drinks on July 4th.

When I look at these contradictory uses of #ChildLabor together, I think these Tweets make me think that the joking uses of #childlabor may be counteracting the serious uses and undermining the message. In other words, to use the #childlabor hashtag as a joke makes light of the reality of child slavery around the world, and may make people think that child labor doesn’t exist anymore (when in reality, it remains a serious problem).