Hashtag This: Hashtag is the Word of the Year

Those that work in the technology business—and even those like me who cover it for a living—are never taken by surprise when news comes out that someone or other has recognized how important technology has become to the lives of everyone.

So we welcomed the news that the American Dialect Society has chosen a word in technology—in this case social media—as the word of the year. The ADS, which fancies itself the leader in recognizing the value of new words in this country, selected “hashtag” as the Word of the Year for 2012.

Say what you will about Twitter and how techie it is or isn't, the fact is the social media phenomenon is a proven success as a communication tool with the ability to expand topics or conversations through the use of the hashtag.

It's also interesting that the hashtag symbol (#) has become sort of the homonym of keyboard symbols with its multiple uses as the “pound” sign on phones and, once upon a time, a symbol that a number would follow it, (as in: “This is the #1 blog on PropertyCasualty360.com.”).

A major surprise was that the five other finalists for Word of the Year were not technology related. That list included:

• YOLO: acronym for “You Only Live Once,” often used sarcastically or self-deprecatingly
• Fiscal cliff: threat of spending cuts and tax increases looming over end-of-year budget negotiations
• Gangnam style: the trendy style of Seoul's Gangnam district, as used in the Korean pop song of the same name
• Marriage equality: legal recognition of same-sex marriage
• 47 percent: portion of the population that does not pay federal income tax 

Gangnam style is a little dubious, but the other nominees were solid.

The ADS also has other categories and insurance technology people should be excited that “big data” was selected as one of the five words most likely to succeed. Insurers don't have a corner on data—or even big data—but its importance to the future of insurance is unmatched by any other industry.

Insurers should take note that superstorm—unattached to Sandy—also was listed as a word most likely to succeed, which really means it will be overused in the future for any large hurricane stories.

Getting back to technology, two words ended up on the least likely to succeed list of the ADS. “Windows Metro” was the name originally used for the Windows 8 operating system and “phablet,” the winner in the least likely category—or loser, depending on your point of view—is a term for mid-sized electronic devices between a smartphone and a tablet.

It appears some people were trying a bit too hard to come up with snappy words in these two cases, but the lesson, as always, should be that words evolve on their own. We can try to make others use them, but if the public isn't buying them you can forget about any recognition.