After reading Weinberger’s (2007)
statement “that the bigger the mess the more accurate is Flickr’s analysis” (p.
95), I have to disagree based upon my experience with working primarily on
Instagram. Social media has begun a
movement to allow people a more simplistic and easier way to search for certain
items. Although it may be considered a
quicker way to search by clicking on a hashtagged item, I have rapidly learned
that this is not the case. A prime example of what I am referring to is that if
you were to search the hashtag “#cats” on Instagram, it would be assumed that
you would find predominantly cat images or cat-related images; however, some
people may hashtag the word cat which may be referring to someone, an inside
joke, or a completely unrelated subject.
While on Instagram, I know of someone who takes photographs and hashtags
random, unrelated items so that when a person searches for something such as “#cats”
they will find an image of corn because they hashtagged it as a joke. Unfortunately, for a person who is only
interested in looking at cat photographs this will not satisfy their
search. Instagram is not 100% accurate
in organizing their information based upon a hashtag.
Weinberger
(2007) strongly believes that “these physical limitations on how we have organized
information have not only limited our vision, they have also given the people
who control the organization of information more power than those who create
the information” (p.89). Below I have
included Instagram’s way of explaining the use of hashtags, but what I noticed
and was surprised by was that they admitted the trickiness behind using
them. There are limitations within using
this social media outlet and like several other networks, there will always be
an organizational control between the creators and the controllers of the
actual information. I cannot completely dismiss
that “the bigger the mess the more accurate” because as I read in a Washington Post article (website link
below), I realized that the use of hashtags is also an innovative and organized
way within our generation allowing an easier way to relay important messages especially
for advertising companies. I have a
difficult time deciding whether or not order hides more than it reveals because
I am not familiar with all social media outlets and/or search engines. However, from my experience I think that
order does often hide more because there is so much information to go through
that the results are endless and may not be in a particularly ordered
fashion.
The Washington Post quoted Hoffman as
saying, “if you want to cut through the clutter and reach young minds then you
really need user generated content, you better get people giving you thousands
of likes on Facebook or re-tweeting your ad”.
Clutter and disorganization are barriers in to finding the most accurate
information. Weinberger believes that a
bigger mess may allow for more accuracy but how is that so between all the
clutter and chaos?
Yes, hashtag "jokes" is an unfortunate problem, but I would be reluctant to allow others to erase these hashtags. I wonder if software, much like facial recognition programs, will soon address this issue?
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