In Japan, when you want to know what food is nearby, do you use a food app to read food reviews, or "Google it" to see what's delicious?
Recently, Japan节目"羽鸟慎一Morning Show"调查指出,Japan年轻人不再选择"Google一下(ググる)",而是钟情于在Instagram、Twitter上"tag一下(tagる)".
△About 33% of 20-year-old women in Japan use social media to search for / トレンダーズ every day
tag is the tag function on social media software, which collects popular posts on social networks with "#" plus keywords to find the latest information. So why do young Japanese people abandon Google search in favor of the tag function that is not used for searching?
Is it more convenient to use hashtags on Instagram?
A Japanese university student interviewed about how young people usually use the tag function said, "I like food very much, so I often search for tags such as Shibuya and Shinjuku food. ”
Later, the program asked two female students to demonstrate how to search for coffee shops with "#表参道咖啡店" on Instagram, and they introduced while demonstrating: "You can see a lot of pictures by searching by tags, and if you find cute and beautiful photos, you will click on them." ”
"It's very convenient to find information such as the location of the store on the post."
Another 20-year-old college student also thinks that "if you search with tag, you will see a bunch of pictures first, and then you can easily find the restaurant you want to go to."
In this way, it seems that the younger generation in Japan prefers to look at photos rather than the text of a search engine when gathering information online.
However, such a "novel" search method is obviously not proficient in older people.
The program team interviewed a Japanese OL in her 50s, and she said, "What is a tag (タグる)?" I had absolutely no idea." It seems that the function of searching by tag has not yet become widespread in the middle and high age groups.
tag vs 谷歌
After the interview, the program team objectively analyzed the reasons why tags are more popular with young people than Google.
For example, when young people want to have lunch in Roppongi, it is difficult to "Google" to know what is the latest information (the search results are not sorted by update time), and the search results have to start with the text, which is time-consuming and laborious.
However, if you "tag" it, the hottest and latest information will appear at the top of the screen, and you can also see a lot of photos, so you can feel the atmosphere of the restaurant in person.
Not only that, but if you make good use of Instagram's location feature, you can also find the location of the restaurant on the map by "tagging", and you can also find photos uploaded by other users from the same tag to see what people are saying about the restaurant.
Japanese people who love labels
Tagging has its own unique features, but why did young Japanese people suddenly change from "Google" to "tag"?
In fact, after entering the era of mobile Internet, social media has become the daily life of the younger generation, and the search platform used has naturally changed from Google to social media.
Instagram is already focusing on images over text, and young people are gradually getting used to browsing pictures more than text, so "tag" has naturally become their search method.
In addition, there is so much information on the Internet that it is really difficult to discern what kind of information is reliable.
For example, if you search for "Kyoto food" on Google, you will usually see a recommendation article from online media, and it is easy to see only a few famous restaurants that appear all the time.
On the contrary, if you search with the tag function on Ins, you can see the real reviews of other users, and you can also find your favorite restaurants and food from the photos, after all, "there are pictures and truths".
In fact, the hashtag function of social media has been widely used by users all over the world, such as #tgif, #tbt等等; Some news even gets more attention because of hashtags, such as the #metoo movement, #blm运动等等.
△来源 / unsplash
However, the Japanese do like to use the tag function very much. They believe that hashtags not only enrich the content of their contributions, but also find like-minded friends.
For example, Japanese people like to use "#○○好きな人と繋がりたい" to create different labels and find like-minded people who share the same interests.
How to make good use of tags in Japan
Since young Japanese people often "tag it", how can we make good use of the tag function when we travel to Japan?
Below, we have compiled four types of hashtags that are commonly used by Japanese people, and if you search for them on Instagram, you can follow them, and you will see related posts on the main page from time to time.
#カフェ巡り (Coffee Shop Cruise)
#〇〇ランチ (lunch) / café (咖啡店) / sweets (甜品) / gourmet (gastronomy) / bakery (麵包店) / ramen (拉麵)
#〇〇観光・#〇〇旅行
#おうちごはん (Home Cooking)
Just turn "〇〇" into the place you want to search for, and you can find information about that place, such as #东京ラーメン.
In short, the influence of social media cannot be ignored today, and platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have completely changed the habits of young Japanese people in collecting information and spending. But my friends in China are actually much the same as them.
Image source in the article / TV Asahi