#Iam or #WeAre
We use hashtags to index information in Social Network Sites (SNS). Hashtags are metadata tags that work as keywords describing an item and allowing it to be found again by browsing or searching. Some hashtags are more trivial than others since their creators generally choose them informally and personally. According to researchers and social observers they play a dual role as a bookmark of content, and as the symbol of a community membership (Yang et al 2012, 1).
A vector of the “virtual collective consciousness” is visible in mediatized tragedies or imminent injustices. These events (death in most cases), become a shared knowledge, people remember and share the story, have empathy toward it, and create a new phenomenon. #IAm is a hashtag that has become the default mode used to express solidarity towards a person or a common cause. But if we read it literally, #IAm is making a statement adopting the identity of someone else.
A vector of the “virtual collective consciousness” is visible in mediatized tragedies or imminent injustices. These events (death in most cases), become a shared knowledge, people remember and share the story, have empathy toward it, and create a new phenomenon. #IAm is a hashtag that has become the default mode used to express solidarity towards a person or a common cause. But if we read it literally, #IAm is making a statement adopting the identity of someone else.
Amanda Hesse, journalist from Slate, states
