Why do people say hashtag?

[george]

I was in one of my classes at school and people were saying something and this girl said "hashtag jealous" then the other girl said "hashtag i know right" and i have heard loads of other people say hashtag in front of words i mean what i the point why dont you just say the word

[thatresearchlady]

Using the hashtag (# - formerly known as the pound sign) is a way to connect with like hashtags on social media, especially twitter. Really? They are just alluding to these social media methods of communication. My estimation is that they think it's funny or cute.