For my hashtag, I chose to research #discrimination. I found that people mostly use the hashtag legitimately, with several congressman and organizations using it. Most tweets about this involved foreign issues and gay rights.

The tone of my first example serious. It is two people, berating Ashers Baking Co., a Northern Irish bakery that refused to make a cake for a gay couple. I think that this social media allows people to spread word about a discriminatory practice, without confrontation. Through Twitter, word of this business’ anti-gay practices can go public instantly. If this company does have discriminatory practices, they should at least have the courtesy to notify people.

The second example is more joke-ish. A teenager is making a joke about the lack of fishabetes. This use of the hashtag shows how humor these days is. It isn’t just clean, every-man jokes, they are a little bit more tailored.

Looking at how people use this hashtag, I think that the legitimacy of the hashtag is mostly upheld as something serious, while a few use it as jokes, even a few of my friends. Hashtags may seem very serious when about serious topics, but it all depends on the context. This says that in society, not everyone thinks or feels the same about a topic. When looking at a tweet, or using a hashtag, a person could think that “this is a good thing, this is constructive” or “this will make people laugh.” That says something about society as a whole, that not everyone thinks the same about an issue.

I couldn’t choose just two tweets for #bias. I find it kinda difficult to determine which tweet was serious and which wasn’t, mainly because I don’t really know most of the references mentioned on their twitter account. One twitter account @WLIA speaks about women needing to gain confidence and strive to fight to take positions that most men often obtain. While the other two @dead speaks about how someone didn’t deserve to win a reality show because she doesn’t have enough talent. I feel this isn’t a proper way to use #bias because you could easily say that the person she wanted to win didn’t deserve to last this long in the running. The other tweet mocks someone randomly gaining weight. I thought it wasn’t the right way to #bias because instead of using it for something actually related to biasness, it makes fun of someone. I could, however, be very wrong because I don’t really know who these people are and what their point is they’re trying to get across.  I think these contradictory hashtags show that our generation doesn’t know the hardships that people who actually have endured biasness, and because of that we take light of it too much.

For my hastag topic, I chose #hero. I found an two tweets from fellow people on twitter. The tone of my first tweet is about how a girl expresses her heroicness about how she saved a lost dog life.

The next tweet’s tone expresses the thought of why trying to be a hero when people constantly try to make one out into a villain. Looking at these two tweets you see how people interpret the word hero. For some trying to become a villain is sort of redundant, since people will constantly try to put one down.

These to contradictory hastags say society can cause use of words to be controversial.

For my hashtag topic, I chose “#SayNoToRacism.” I found two different tweets that are somewhat contradictive. (top and bottom) The tone of my first example is rather serious, putting together a valid argument for a hypocritical thing that occurs in everyday life. The tone of the last one is more passionate, with love and tender care for what he enjoys – soccer! Looking at these different usages, it’s apparent that a lot of emotion runs high in this topic! There is a very blatant contrast present here; the first user’s claim is apparent in everyday life, where prejudice runs rampant in modern media, though many people turn a blind eye to it, more aware of the symbolism of what is advertised. The other person (on bottom) is in favor of media coverage associated with the games, despite some of the outer issues involved in the media, that may or may not have racial profiling in some ads. Society is divided in opinions, and there are some actions out there that give good reasons why this is the case. This is a fundamental structure in modern society.

For my hashtag,I chose #peace. I found that some tweets were used to promote peace and happiness within oneself, but others used it as a way to say goodbye. The tone of the first tweet shows determination. It exemplifies that peace is the way to bring security and harmony between Palestine and Israel. While scrolling down this hashtag, I saw many tweets about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, meaning many people want to use peace to bring about change. The tone of the second tweet is unkind. The teenage girl is using the word “peace” as a way to say goodbye. She also uses two emojis to show the spitefulness. Looking at these different usages, I think there only two ways to use peace. One being about creating tranquility, and others using it as a way to say goodbye.

These contradictory hashtags say that some people use peace to it’s full extent and use the full meaning of it while others don’t care what it means.

For my hashtag topic I chose #civilrights. I found many tweets from radicals or angry Americans complaining about their rights. They want change. The tone of my first example was a person pleading why his or her rights should be controlled by the book of a religion. Someone else’s beliefs of rights should not influence his. The tone of my second example is how a bar became under fire for dress code. The people were complaining why they would be under attack for expressing their clothes without their rights. Looking at these different usages, I think this hashtag is a very controversial topic/debate i do not want to become apart of. Many of the participants are nationalist pleading their rights which are being abused and they usually argue with people over the internet leading nowhere, just unnecessary debate. I do not want to be a apart of these because I feel like if i say one wrong thing not the same as the debaters, they will cook me up alive. This says society can be viewed so differently from people because of growing up different, different education and beliefs, and just their perspectives can crate such tension. #civilrights

I searched #fairness on Twitter. I found two tweets using the hashtag for different things. @IslingtonCycle used the hashtag in a more serious tone while @DMashak seemed to use this hashtag differently. @IslingtonCycle seemed to raise a serious concern about fairness and the corruption of the promotion of car use. People tricking others into debt is a serious matter. However @DMashak used the hashtag in this context only to promote people following him. Getting more twitter followers is a personal think that affects no one else. These two examples show that different people use the same hashtag for different purposes. Using the #fairness hashtag like @DMashak dose not actually discuss an issue about fairness or a lack of fairness, which distracts from the tweets that use the hashtag in a serious manner. 

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).