“how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”

When Chris Messina, a social technology expert, sent that tweet in 2007, everything changed.

Thanks to Messina, we now use Hashtags to make our posts searchable. They are “categorically arranged so that others can easily search for the topic and participate in the conversation”. (hashtag.org) And this past Tuesday, the Hashtag #BellLetsTalk campaign for mental health awareness raise $5,472,585! The campaign resulted in 109,451,718 text messages, mobile and long distance calls, tweets and Facebook shares.

While useful, like when it raises $5,472,585, sometimes Hashtags can be distracting, especially when the are peppered throughout the body of a text. Have you ever wondered how your posts translate into everyday conversation? What if we spoke in Hashtags in daily conversation? Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake show you how absurd that would actually be in the video below. It’s been out for a while, but still worth sharing: