Can't help you, I'm the same way. I think they are stupid.

They're useful for analytics.

If this site had a "tag cloud", where tags of topics discussed more are listed larger and heavier that other tags, I bet "gundebate", "florida", etc. would be prominent. Of course, there are other uses than just "tag clouds".

I'm no analytics/data person, but I'm sure analysis by a data person of the tags would result in some insights.

Did someone say hash?

Sounds like a hole you burn in your furniture while smoking some resin in a spliff

It's kind of like a way to start a side conversation with other people. when you add a hashtag to something you are basically starting a new chat style chat room ( of sorts ) so people can comment on the subject you tagged easier than just commenting into the void

I see no reason for them, and don't ever use them.

I'm glad you asked, I'm clueless.

I'm with ya! I think it's a good way to keep people thinking simple.

I have no use for them. They are nothing but 'pound' signs to me.

(From Google) hash. tag: A word or phrase preceded by a hash mark , used within a message to identify a keyword or topic of interest and facilitate a search for it. Whenever a user adds a hashtag to their post, it's able to be indexed by the social network and becomes searchable/discoverable by other users.

If you append a post with, let's say. #jello, then jello goes into a database of tags (if it isn't already there) and your post or tweet or whatever gets indexed to it. So anyone looking for jello would find your message.