As the year comes to an end, we often try to look at a few things that made the year special, different, memorable etc. There are moments, there are pictures, there are thoughts, there are ideas and then there are words. Words that can create delirium or become so popular that it becomes difficult to say adieu to the year before revisiting these words at least once.
Today, when the social media is one of the most powerful mode of communication, some of the words get shared or liked so many times that they almost become a part of our day to day vocabulary. Hashtags these days define the trends people like to follow especially the ones on Facebook and Twitter. Once a hashtag is created, all you need to do is to post a status or a tweet with those hashtags and it may sound unbelievable but any of the hashtags that you created can go viral within a few minutes of your post.
There are some words, phrases or hashtags that went viral on social media this year.
Here is a list of some of the most popular and most talked about words or hashtags of 2015:
#BeefBan: From normal streets to the houses of the Parliament, almost every place turned into a bedlam over the ban on eating or selling beef after the Maharashtra government decided to prohibit the possession or sale of beef. Social media witnessed a frenzy of people’s reaction from different parts of the society, a lot of which was pinned under the term #BeefBan after the state government decided to put a blanket ban on slaughtering of cows, buffaloes and bullocks.
#Intolerance: The entire nation joined the hysteria and started voicing their opinion against the rising intolerance in India followed by the #DadriLynching incident where a man was lynched to death by a mob of locals over alleged rumours of him eating beef. The word #intolerance gradually modified to #intolerancedebate
#AwardWapsi: This new term came into existence when the noted authors, novelists, writers, actors, filmmakers and other artists started returning the honours bestowed on them for their contribution to the respective fields of art and culture. This term was an outbreak of the main term #intolerance which took birth on the mother of all viral phrases platform- The twitter.
#SuitBootSarkaar: While clothing may not always define a common man but they definitely define a politician and from somewhere Rahul Gandhi had got the idea of evoking the wardrobe factor in his speeches in order to bring back Congress to the main front after the 2014 defeat. In one of his speeches in Amethi, Rahul called the BJP government as ‘Suit Boot Ki Sarkaar’ accusing them of being far away from the plight of the farmers and then reiterated the phrase multiple times. PM Modi gave a strong rebuttal to his ‘catchy’ term and called Congress’ regime as ‘Suitcase’ Sarkaar.
#SanskariJamesBond: When CBFC directed to chop off the kissing scenes of America’s greatest spy and the James Bond got a licence to only half a kiss in Spectre, the bond lovers across India decided to teach CBFC Chief Pankaj Nihalani a lesson by using this new coined term.
#OddEvenLogic: When the Delhi Government decided that only Odd or Even vehicles will ply on Delhi roads on alternate days, this word went viral on social networking sites.
#KejriwalKaHathBalatkarioKeSath: When there was a debate on whether or not Juvenile rapist in Nirbhaya case should be set free, the netizens across the nation trolled the Delhi Chief Minister over twitter with this hashtag.
#PrayForParis: On the fateful night of November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terror attacks rocked the French capital leaving 127 people dead. The entire world came together on the social media to express their solidarity with Paris with the #PrayForParis hashtag. A lot of people also changed their profile pictures on Facebook to show their support for the country.
#NirbhayaRapistOut: When the Supreme court dismissed Delhi Commission for Women’s (DCW) plea against the release of the Juvenile rapist in the horrific December 16 gangrape case, the entire nation expressed their shock and distress with this hashtag condemning the apex court’s decision that might lead to the convict walking free.
#NetNeutrality: This term took the entire world by storm as most of the netizens across the world got divided on whether they should have Net Neutrality or not. The debate rose to a level where Mark Zuckerberg’s internet.org also faced an existential crisis as the buzz in the social media claimed that this concept is against Net Neutrality. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all other networking sites were abuzz with the hashtag or the term called Net Neutrality.
#ChennaiFloods: Nature’s fury turned very harsh on the people of Chennai and other suburban areas of Tamil Nadu as unprecedented rains flooded all the areas. As many as 269 people lost their lives in the disastrous floods and life came to a standstill. People from all parts of the country extended their help in whichever way they could to help the victims during the floods and are now working on the rehabilitation post the calamity.
#SheenaBoraMurder: It was nothing short of a real life soap opera with multiple twists and turns in between when the Mumbai police arrested Indrani Mukherjea on August 2015. She was arrested on the charges of allegedly abducting and then murdering her daughter Sheena Bora. The case unearthed fresh can of worms every time the investigations moved an inch closer to nabbing the killer. As the probe progressed, big names like the former star India CEO, Peter Mukherjea also got highlighted in the media. The case is still subjudice and Indrani and Peter Mukherjea are currently lodged in jail.
#NationalHerald: With the probability of the mother and son duo of India’s first political family appearing in court, the national herald case was one of the most talked about topics of the year 2015. A Delhi court ordered Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi to appear in connection to the alleged role of the two in acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YIL) on or before December 19. Twitterati went unhinged and posted comments with the hashtag #NationalHerald until December 19 when Sonia and Rahul appeared in Patiala House court and got bail in the case.
#Trump:Trump made headlines across the world as he proposed to ban Muslims from entering the US and he was trolled all over twitter for his anti-muslim comments. On Saturday, Trump took on opponent Hillary Clinton by citing her husband’s history of marital infidelity and alleged sexual misconduct.
Disclaimer: The list is perhaps too long and I am sure I have missed out on a lot of words here, apologies for that. But yeah,such is the power of social media you see.