Late Night with Jimmy Fallon created a skit with Justin Timberlake, parodying the current tagging trend through hyperbolic comedic interpretation of how this trend has gone too far. In the clip, the two entertainers take the virtual tags that aggregate data and make fun of the tag-crazy or metatagging culture that has exploded since Twitter, Instagram and more recently, Facebook, which introduced hashtags buy incorporating it into spoken sentences of the real world.

Indeed there are examples of people’s overuse of hashtagging, which begs the question – are people are trying to make their content more searchable and trackable or, are they are simply in the adolescent internet life stage and their overuse of it is the online version of teen over-reactions?

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Tagging, metadata and it’s implication on algorithms and ultimately search results does impact which content is features at the top of searches, and therefore influences public discourse and the overall news agenda. We can and should think about the implication on language, cultural exchange and identity. A cute article written by Ad Age took a look into the life of a 10 year old without Facebook and Twitter. Berkowitz found that it was still an overwhelming connected social life with expectations around the mobile media device to shape their language, culture and identity. In contrast, Ashton points our that “today computers—and, therefore, the Internet—are almost wholly dependent on human beings for information” (That ‘Internet of Things’ Thing, 2009).

So it seems that society continues to struggle between who is in control – the humans or the technology, and whether the collection of data will support people’s development and information needs – or be run by it.

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Another concerning trend in metadata is the two pronged consequences surrounding content, whereby –

1) the first acknowledges the destabilising privacy expectations around increased collection of personal information that is being stored in cyberspace for eternity;

2) and the second concern is the ability to search anonymously and the pros and cons of maintaining that luxury.

In this week’s reading, Stross similarly echoes these key issues, “as the online world has expanded exponentially and the amount of personal information collected online has grown apace, users have watched with queasiness as one company after another, whether accidentally or intentionally, has released information that users regards as personal or private” (The Algorithm 2008, p 63).

The reason attention is given to this concern is because technology is seeming to compete with the values of our community. The over-intuitive internet and unintentional acceptance of unread terms of service by many users in order to tap into the information system such as the “I accept” and “I agree” buttons we click each day  is a poignant reflection of the speed of progress, that will leave a trail of mistakes that cannot be undone until it is too late.

Online users signing away content rights to corporations and leaving themselves vulnerable to hackers is a big issue, especially as our online usage patterns become predictable, searchable and algorithmic.  Cracked wrote an article titled “6 Terrifying User Agreements you’ve Probably Accepted” which illustrates this bubbling feature. However, the homoginisation of people’s interests and search queries and other information can be in intimidating, it is not all bad!

Business are not the only beneficiaries of hashtags and information aggregation. High quality, instant and relevant information is the best way to combat a sense of loss of control or privacy in an algorithmic digital age. Munjin (2011) talks about the empowerment of the end users, as someone that is not simply a passive consumer but rather involved in the commercial, user experience and social shaping of the web, and how we interact with it.

In conclusion, hashtags, short-hand communication, algorithyms and the searchability of all this metadata is produced by people for people. It can seem like the internet gets away from us at times or overtakes our lives and language (as Justin and Jimmy shows us), however a dystopian view of the world is neither productive nor truthful. We must not ignore the changes to society or potential dangers of irresponsible and adolescent internet use, however the control is ours and the journey to organise information online is still at an early stage of discovery, where we must remain patient and faithful.