The symbol "#" has evolved from being known as a pound sign, to a number sign, and now recognized on Twitter, Instagram and other types of social media communities as the hashtag. According to language columnist Ben Zimmer, a hashtag "is a word or smashed-together phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#), originally devised as a way to keep track of the flow of subject . Internet Relay Chats originally started using the hashtag in 1988 to categorize the variety of groups and topics on the site. But in 2007, open source advocate Chris Messina, suggested that hashtags be used on Twitter to tag different topics of interest and the first hashtag on Twitter was created. His tweet stated, "how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?  Ben Zimmer reveals in his article titled "The Art of the Self-Mocking Hashtag  his views on the hashtag. Using his article as a lens, we can look at different hashtags and apply his theories and ideas. Hashtags play an important social and rhetorical role and often bring communities together. The #selfie has gained so much popularity in the last few years. According to Oxford Dictionary, selfie is defined as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website . Instagram states that the first use of #selfie was back in 2001 when user "Jennlee  posted a picture using that hashtag and only getting 67 likes. Now in 2014, pop star Justin Bieber, can post a picture using #selfie and get 1.06 million likes. Justin Bieber's use compared to "Jennlee  proves how much power #selfie has gained. It has given birth from just being a hashtag on Instagram to Twitter and now Facebook. Ellen DeGeneres posted a selfie with fellow celebrities at the 2014 Oscars, which now has 3.4 million retweets and 1.9 million favorites, the most retweets in history. Ellen actually crashed Twitter in her attempts to get the most retweets of her selfie. The term has evolved from basically describing teenage girls taking pictures of themselves and posting them with #selfie onto Twitter or Instagram into a regular habit. Even President Obama takes selfies. He was caught taking a selfie at Nelson Mandela's funeral and Fox News' reaction to it was "call it the selfie seen 'round the world  (Fox News). #Self