Why is it that I can keep tweeting and checking Facebook every day, multiple times per day, actually, but I can leave this blog without writing anything new for weeks at a time?
On Facebook, there are these little white numbers with red backgrounds that pop up every so often. And don't they make you feel good? Isn't it fun when you check your twitter and you see someone else's tweet and you see "@yourusername?" With blogging, the most you can get is a comment on your stuff, and that doesn't happen when you don't tell people about your blog.
The truth is, every one loves attention. It makes them feel loved. I keep going back to Facebook and Twitter because I love the way it feels when I see those little numbers on my home page, and @metuttle in someone else's tweets.
I'm sure we all know someone for whom this is easy to believe. They're the friends who always seem to bring a conversation back to themselves. The ones who you always know what's going on in their lives, because you've heard about everything on at least two separate occasions. But then we all also have the friend who never talks about themselves. They're the ones you always have to ask questions directly in order to get any sort of personal information out of them. With these friends it seems like they'll do anything to get the conversation away from them, and that's true. But, it doesn't mean that they don't like the feedback that comes after they're done talking.
It took until a couple weeks ago for me to realize this. I've been having problems with a friend for a year or two now, and we've only just started to try to fix things this summer, since we're both home from school and have the time to see and talk to each other. We're pretty different. Looking at the differences between Type A and Type B personalities, and the problems that normally arise between them pretty much sums up our relationship. She's pretty tightly strung, and every thing is clearly defined in her eyes. I am not.
We recently had a conversation about some things that I wanted to get off my chest, and that evolved into another conversation about how much we've both changed since finishing our first year of college. She had become more open to listening instead of talking about herself most of the time. I had become more open to talking about myself instead of listening most of the time.
Even though we've both changed for the better, how much we like the attention that goes along with talking about ourselves hasn't changed. When I was really quiet - I'm talking REAL quiet - I used to love when people would ask me questions - I still do. It was a way for me to talk about myself that didn't make me feel like I was boring people or annoying them. They were taking a genuine interest in my life. This year, I learned that most of the time I'm not boring or annoying anyone when I tell a funny story about myself or something exciting that I'm going to do soon.
What my friend learned when we were talking, was that even though I was always willing to listen or that sometimes I was uncomfortable with being the first person to speak up in a conversation, I still liked attention. I liked seeing people's reactions to the things I've done or when people hear the side comments I say under my breath and laugh.
Now, this doesn't me me an egotist. I'm by no means full of myself. I'm almost never comfortable in any situation, and I always worry that people don't want to hear the story that I've finally mustered up enough courage to share with them. But I like the attention.
And why do those certain friends of ours talk about themselves all the time? Don't they like that people like hearing about their lives and what they're doing, too?
The truth is, every one loves attention.
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