Rethinking the intersection between social networks, urban territories and everyday life practices. A critical approach to the spreading of hashtags in urban storytelling

In recent years the centrality of a common sense emerged with increasing strength in the social media scenario: the practice of sharing experiences, practices and rituals is fostered by competition among the manifold networks that enliven a communications ecosystem more and more based on everyday life storytelling. The aim of this article is to contribute to sociosemiotic recognition of several particularly widespread aspects of the renegotiation of urban everyday life fostered by the pervasive concept of media overexposure. In particular, the article, at the intersection of three axes – social networks, urban territories and everyday life practices – concentrates on the spread of hashtags, seemingly obvious and “transparent” signs that contribute to blurring the borders that separate everyday life in urban territories from the conversations about it. In the social network scenario Instagram is an exemplary case worth investigating, since its growing popularity holds conse- quences in the representation of urban territories.