Beyond indexing content and creating networks, hashtags can also convey social meanings. From the perspective of social representation, this article investigates how gay men in Singapore use various hashtags to represent their complex identities and create a shared meaning of being gay in Singapore. Through a textual analysis of identity-related posts generated by gay Instagram users in Singapore, we identified two patterns of using gay-related hashtags: habitual and contextual. Both patterns rely on and demonstrate the identity complexity of gay users. The patterns suggest the users’ identity management online while engendering different forms of social representation for Singaporean gay men. By using non-gay hashtags and juxtaposing them with gay ones, the users could disseminate outreach information, establish social connections, and improve the digital inclusion of their group. We also found unusual exclusions of gay hashtags, suggesting the potential conflict between gayness and some traditional values/roles in Singapore.

中文翻译：

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包容性标签：Instagram 上新加坡男同性恋社会代表的复杂身份


除了索引内容和创建网络之外，主题标签还可以传达社交意义。本文从社会表征的角度出发，探讨了新加坡男同性恋者如何使用各种标签来表达他们复杂的身份，并在新加坡创造出同性恋的共同意义。通过对新加坡同性恋 Instagram 用户生成的与身份相关的帖子进行文本分析，我们发现了使用同性恋相关主题标签的两种模式：习惯性和上下文性。这两种模式都依赖并展示了同性恋用户的身份复杂性。这些模式暗示了用户的在线身份管理，同时为新加坡男同性恋者提供了不同形式的社会代表。通过使用非同性恋标签并将其与同性恋标签并置，用户可以传播外展信息，建立社交联系，并提高其群体的数字包容性。我们还发现同性恋标签被异常排除，这表明同性恋与新加坡的一些传统价值观/角色之间存在潜在冲突。