New Media and Mass Communication www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3267 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3275 (Online) Vol.71, 2018 41 Famous Social Media Application and Use of Hashtags in Pakistani Context: A Survey Umbreen Tariq* Department of Sciences and Humanities Dr. Summaira Sarfraz Department of Sciences and Humanities Abstract Observing the latest practices on social media applications, role of hashtags have become a major concern to talk about. The emergence of social media has put huge impact on people of different age groups; thus, it is bringing a change in the pattern of communication and interaction (Kamran and Mansoor, 2017). Social media applications allow interaction while following new features and trends; for example, the use of hashtags. Emerging trend of hashtags is considerable and worth studying the perception of social media users in Pakistan. The study aims to analyze the popularity of social media application in Pakistan, and to what extent social media users are aware about the usage of hashtags. Four social media applications i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat were considered in the study depending upon their accessibility in Pakistan. Data was collected quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaire where 55 Pakistani social media users participated. Results of the survey reveal that Pakistani users are more inclined towards using Facebook and Instagram than Twitter or Snapchat. The study further collected qualitative data from 8 Facebook users in an interview. Findings of the study show that hashtags are used on Facebook as fashionable trend to catch attention. Keywords: social media applications, Facebook, Instagram, hashtags, Pakistan Introduction Technological advancement has made people connected all around the globe (Wooley, 2013). They are able to support interpersonal communication and collaboration with the help of Internet supported social media applications (Kane et al. 2012); also, they are more engaged and connected (Poell and van, 2015). Social media in modern world has showed great dominance over societies and people; it has become a place where people share their thoughts and ideas (Tsur and Rappoport, 2012). It has put great impact upon interaction and communication among people of different countries in the world. There are endless uses of social media (Adler et al. 2012) as mentioned by Zemmels, (2012) that it is itself a common method of communication because of its ability to constantly generate new information. From the act of updating a status to posting photos and videos, social media has made a digital footprint in our society and within the last decade and hundreds of social media applications have been created for Internet savvy people. (Ike, 2017). Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are now free and easily accessible to every person who has access of Internet and technological devices, laptops, computers, tablets, notebooks or mobiles phones etc. It further enables people to follow or to add each other; and to share posts on their personal accounts once they are created or signed up by following easy and quick steps. These applications are different from traditional social setting of communication and sharing as they represent relationships and interactions. Such platforms quantify and formalize relationships after interactions beyond the boundaries. According to the research made by (Gilbert and Karahalios 2009), people can attribute to labels such as friend or follower. Whereas Boyd and Ellison, (2007) mentioned that users of social media applications establish new social connections while maintaining existing ones which enable them to communicate and interact. Social media applications have further developed the trend of hashtags in which word or phrase is used right after the # sign and that is called as hashtag. Chang (2010) defined hashtags as “prefixed by # symbol with a keyword”. Whereas Caleffi, (2015) added to this definition by calling hashtags “topic markers”; also a word or string of words preceeding by the # sign. It is made up of two different words hash and tag, officially added in the year of 2010, to Oxford English Dictionary. These tags convey information under the specified keyword. For example, if user wants information on Internet, he or she can simple take advantage of sign # following the keyword Internet, without any space. After searching through this sign, all categorized information will appear in the search engine. Lakarnchua and Wasanasomsithi, (2014) stated that social networking helps to produce “short and spontaneous communication” which further helped Adamska (2015) to state that hashtag is a new model of communication, which can serve various purposes and can contribute to “fast and easy communication” done on the social media applications. Lomicka and Lord, (2016) stated that one must remember the fact that all social media applications have one purpose and that is to interact. Social interaction develop connection among people of all communities. Hashtags are considered as “mini narratives” and “searchable talk”. Shapp (2014) stated that