So you just learned that you have a disease. A good one… sayyyyy MS. What’s the first step?
HASHTAGS!!!
Now, with MS… the hashtagging game is gonna be a bit tricky
#MS – an unmarried woman
#MS – postal abbreviation for Mississippi
You don’t want to embarrass yourself by posting a picture of your arm with an infusion catheter and have it be lost in a sea of pictures of unmarried women who reside in Mississippi… who would know of your struggle?
#multiplesclerosis seems too on the nose. But you have to start somewhere. So you search it…. Ok looks legit, lots of empowering quotes. Women doing cartwheels behind empowering quotes… We are on the right track. But is this really the hashtag for you? We’ll have to go in deeper.
Now anyone who uses hashtags will tell you, one hashtag is never enough. You need a lot, you need to cover all your bases, but who should have ONE that is your main hashtag, and others to cast a wider net.
So you browse images of people in gyms, mostly women in gyms – not being a creep….
#MS (I guess it works sometimes)
#mutiplesclerosis (we know that one)
#MSwarrior (ok that one is new)
#fuckMS (yeah that makes sense)
#MSwontholdmeback (little long)
#multiplesclerosissucks (too many S’s)
But are any of these YOUR hashtag? Do any of them speak directly to you without speaking to everyone? This is YOUR disease – how can you properly share YOUR disease with a hashtag that speaks for SO many others.
So you make one.
Your own hashtag. A hashtag that will tell everyone I, BRYAN JACKSON, have MS. This is MY experience, you can follow it with MY hashtag.
You are at this site so you already know that I own the domain www.MSjacksonifyourenasty.com (clever right?)
So you could easily just do #MSjacksonifyourenasty, sure – that would wrap everything up in a nice little bow. But it’s long and a bit cumbersome.
#MRMS has a nice ring to it. You search… Hmmm seems like a thing for couples and young foreigners. But we are close, it doesn’t seem to be directly related to MS.
#MisterMS – only 250 total posts on IG with this hashtag.. And the only consistent image is of some super sexy man in bathing suits with his comments in Spanish.
You decide to steal this hashtag. You decide to steal it right now.
It’s yours now.
Go blindly… tag everything. Your food, your legs, your shoes, your selfies (see gym selfies).
Tag now, ask for forgiveness later.