Hashtags: shaping history

Give an opening speech as a future historian.
You are a historian in the year 2086 and you've been invited to speak at the opening of the exhibit How Hashtags Shaped History at the Global Museum of Digital Culture.
In your speech, you'll present key insights from your research, showing how hashtags influenced social movements, culture, and communication in the early 21st century. The floor is yours to bring history (and the future) to life!

Pick one hashtag from the timeline, find more context online and report to the class on its impact.

List different ways in which hashtags help unite people.

In your opinion, which hashtag was most successful in promoting positive change? Why?

Using the timeline as inspiration, choose one hashtag and write a short post (three or four sentences) imagining how it would be presented in the future exhibition.

How is the hashtag defined in the video?

Pick out examples of hashtag movements or campaigns and explain their impact.

What are some advantages of hashtags compared to real-life activism?

Start drafting your speech. Write a short paragraph summarising how hashtags have amplified social movements.

What was Chris Messina's original idea when he created the hashtag? How was it received at first?

Explain how the hashtag caught on.

Pick out some reasons Chris Messina gives to explain the hashtag's success.

Chris Messina mentioned how hashtags are used in everyday conversations, like #blessed. Create a fun or ironic hashtag that people might casually use in 2086 and imagine the context behind the future trend.

• Review your notes on the origins of hashtags, their impact and the social issues they addressed.


• Choose the examples from the documents that you want to highlight in your speech.

• Draft an outline of your speech, incorporating historical examples and future projections. Imagine how the rise of hashtags in the early 21st century is seen from 2086 and what they may have become in the future.

• Deliver your speech as a historian in 2086. Make it informative, engaging, and imaginative!