It's true: we are a hashtag nation. It means our attention span is only as long as the time a hashtag survives on Twitter’s trending list.

We do not have serious discussions or educated discourse on issues. Instead, we have cycles of rage that fuel up masses with that feel-good hormone to help them power them through whatever tragedy is at hand.

Be it #StaySafe, #WeShallSurvive, #DownWith ____ or #EverythingIsAwesome, our communal capacity to deal with issues has boiled down to trending hashtags.

Also read: #PeshawarAttack: 10 ways we should not have reacted

Now, this would be great if Pakistan were a nation on Twitter or Facebook. Unfortunately for us, virtual activists though, there is a Pakistan that exists in physical reality, and has very real issues and problems for which all we are doing is spewing reactionary rhetorical nonsense.

Take, for instance, the Peshawar Massacre.

First came the grief and rage. Then came the politicalisation of a tragedy. In response to that happened military courts. And that is it.

The outcome of a massacre of 132 children was a bunch of press conferences, candlelight vigils, social media rhetoric and the creation of military courts.