Want to know the hashtag that symbolises annoying people?

It’s been a chatty week on social media, writes Sarah Khamis

What does it take to become a social media phenomenon? What was the best memory of the Qasr Al Hosn festival in Abu Dhabi? Is there a particular way that our region uses Snapchat? Yes, it’s been a lively week on social media.

So who is Marwan Talodi and why did his name become a Twitter hashtag that is still trending furiously across the region? Mr Talodi advises on ways to make your fortune – his website claims to offer “the ultimate guide to your success!” – and he is also a pop up advertisement that really did pop up everywhere.

In a way, #MarwanTalodi has almost become a social media synonym for being annoying. There were tweets about annoying Twitter-users, the Marwan Talodis of the twitterverse, who pop up everywhere: you find them 24 hours a day, tweeting about every subject, read one tweet.

@fatmabasmail tweeted a photo of a car with a sticker that said “Marhaba, I’m Marwan Talodi”, in a parody of his introductory sentence to every video.

@blueAndRedx wrote about a sad fact of life: some people are like Marwan Talodi. No matter how many times you try to get away from them, they show up again.

@Abdulraheem wondered if such get-rich-advice really works for anyone but those who offer it. He added that we need to raise awareness about such matters.

But @S_Al_Ketbi Sultan was one of the very few social media-users who defended Mr Talodi. “He is a successful and active person in society,” he tweeted. And he added, “Thanks Marwan. For those who don’t know him I say, don’t judge a person before you get to know them.”

Snapchat

The region’s growing addiction to Snapchat has itself become a bit of a social media story with so many more people using the photo messaging app to record moments of their daily lives and share them with friends and family.

@Kawthar sarcastically tweeted, using the hashtag #Snapchat that Arabs have a particular way of using Snapchat, which is to add only a few photos.

Another tweeted that all the Snapchat photos of children underlined that modern motherhood was becoming a bit of a “social issue”. In 2015, children spend 50 per cent of their time with the maid, 49 per cent with their grandmother and 1 per cent of their time with the mother in order for her to photograph them for Snapchat.

@alisarkhoo pointed out that Snapchat was clearly the most popular of all social media applications. When you open your phone you use Snapchat, then Instagram and Twitter, in that order. It’s the same for everyone, said the tweet.

@Maljamea tweeted “Snapchat is worth $10 billion – hearing this after a long day at work is bad news for our health.”

Qasr Al Hosn

Though it wasn’t on Snapchat but on Twitter, visitors to this year’s Qasr Al Hosn cultural festival shared lots of photos of all that was on offer. Using the hashtag #QasrAlHosn, one tweet shared an Instagram photo and said it had been a wonderful 10 days at the festival and that they will remain some of the sweetest memories of his life.

@KhadeejaM tweeted that the festival attracted around 120,000 visitors this year.

@DrAhmedAlnaqbi, aka Dr Ahmed Binaskar, whose Twitter profile describes him as Sharjah’s candidate in the 2011 Federal National Council elections, tweeted a rare photo from the 1950s. It showed Sheikh Shakhbout bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was then ruler of Abu Dhabi, standing in Qasr Al Hosn fort.

Saif tweeted a sentiment expressed by many, of the joys of a trip back to the old days when life in the emirates was rough but simple. “I cannot express what I am feeling at this moment, sitting with older people listening to their stories from the past, of a life that was so simple,” he said.

@IbrahimAlHashi added: “A great effort to share our culture and history with the world. Thanks to all those who made this happen.”

Sarah Khamis is The National’s social media editor

On Twitter: @SarahKhamisUAE