Do people crave attention more than ever?

People don’t change much – just the world around them changes. If you read some of the ancient Greek’s writings you will see that their opinions on life, politics, teenagers etc., is not too different than today.

If you spoil a set of people, they will indulge in a self seeking way of life.
By saying spoil, I mean a lot of things.

Yes, @DarkScribe, but . . . in an increasingly media-dominated world, with the Internet being the medium of media, people spend more and more time in one-sided relationships that are essentially empty and ultimately unfulfilling. You can (if you choose) see intimately into the lives of others—celebrities, ordinary people, and fictional beings such as film and TV characters—but they don’t see you at all, much less return your interest and affection.

I have to say it again: we fall in love with people who don’t even exist, much less love us back. The universe of the media is a universe of unrequited love.

And so how do we get our turn to be loved and followed? Why, by turning ourselves into media creatures too, so we can have audiences that will love us as we love others. Yet it is still not reciprocal. It is not a human relationship. Those work the same way they always have, but amid the immense quantity of static and gray noise it can be hard these days to send and receive a clear signal.

Absolutely not! Twitter it not an example of this at all!

I think that in different times, people thought that people were being attention-seekers, like when the newspapers came out. There must have been someone that though thinkers were looking for attention.

Is there anything wrong with seeking attention?

I don’t need to seek attention, I have a dog and she loves me like I am god, or something. I keep telling her that if she would just grow an opposable thumb, she could work the door and the can opener, too. =)

Obviously there are a lot of people tempted to indulge that fantasy. Some YouTube accounts make me shudder. And, though we see it less in America, ‘net idols’ are extremely common in some Asian countries—people who just post (photoshopped) photographs of themselves on websites, blogs, forums, etc. and attain sometimes very large fanbases.

But as @Jeruba pointed out, the affection or attention they receive is false, fleeting, and contributes only to a tiny fraction of all the information and multitasking that typically occurs when a young person is using the Internet. The connection is absent. There are no lingering feelings. There’s not even limerance.

So, then, @Jeruba, I’m interested in your opinion: do these false relationships or unreciprocated affections merely lead us deeper into the ‘static’ and, perhaps, a certain kind of anonymity (in spite of the initial efforts for attention)?
If you haven’t read it already I think you’d enjoy Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise. Don’t worry, it’s not where the bad horror film came from.

@Jeruba Yes, DarkScribe, but . . . in an increasingly media-dominated world, with the Internet being the medium of media, people spend more and more time in one-sided relationships that are essentially empty and ultimately unfulfilling. You can (if you choose) see intimately into the lives of others—celebrities, ordinary people, and fictional beings such as film and TV characters—but they don’t see you at all, much less return your interest and affection.

As I said – we don’t change much – just the world around us changes. ;)

I have to say it again: we fall in love with people who don’t even exist, much less love us back. The universe of the media is a universe of unrequited love.

This is not something I have seen – I have read of instances, but would hardly regard it as commonplace.

If Socrates, Plato or Aristotle were born today, same people, same genes, same intellect, they would react (to the world around them) much the way a thinking person reacts today. The only difference would be that their world had changed. They would not seem in any way different to modern mankind.

@DarkScribe, This is not something I have seen – I have read of instances, but would hardly regard it as commonplace.

You have never heard of kids loving Mickey Mouse or viewers being crazy about certain sitcom characters? I even know some adults who love the Disneyfied Winnie-the-Pooh. How about all the millions of fans of the full range of musicians and actors and sports figures out there? That is what I’m talking about. Perhaps you are reading “fall in love with” much more narrowly than I intended. I mean it in the broadest sense and not just in the sense of seeing someone as a romantic partner.

@Jeruba You have never heard of kids loving Mickey Mouse or viewers being crazy about certain sitcom characters? I even know some adults who love the Disneyfied Winnie-the-Pooh. How about all the millions of fans of the full range of musicians and actors and sports figures out there?

Whoa!

Liking, appreciating, admiring, being a fan of is not “falling in love”. I like many individuals as portrayed in a role – there is no way that I have genuine affection for them – no matter who they are in real life. I thought that Deborah Harry from Blondie was gorgeous, I even dated a woman who was her clone for a year or so, but I was always aware that Deborah Harry was an image, not a real person. She didn’t even have blonde hair – it was a series of wigs.

Falling in love is pretty explicit, it doesn’t really extend to any other meaning. It doesn’t even mean hero worship.

Although many people are fans – even obsessed fans, that is little different to fans of Gladiators in ancient Rome – nothing to do with love. Gladiators had huge fan followings – they were the original rock stars.

As I said, I have not heard of anyone falling in love with a character in a show or movie.

It certainly enables attention seeking. As far as pseudo-celebrities go, that’s reality TV that does this.

@DarkScribe, we use the expression “falling in love” all the time in a broad sense, which is the way I meant it, as I explained.

“Absolutely fell in love with resort!” [ source ]

“How I fell in love with an electric car” [ source ]

“My nursery walls were bare until my granddaughter had her first birthday. She fell in love with Nemo so I felt that this was a good direction to turn to in decorating her room.” [ source ]

“I have fallen in love with this place ever since a friend of my took me for dinner here.” [ source ]

“Why women fall in love with fictional characters” [ source ]

“Can You Fall in Love With Your Favorite TV Character?” [ source ]

I don’t think my extension of it to falling in love with celebrities, sports heroes, and other public figures is at all far-fetched.

I am not talking about real love. I thought I was pretty clear. I am talking about the experience of emotional attachment to a human being or humanlike being that cannot possibly return one’s affection—therefore leaving one with a lonely one-sided passion. You don’t think that happens?

I think the way the media bring the lives of others into our private spaces fosters that phenomenon in a way that hearing the Odyssey retold around the fire could never do.

It seems to me the internet allows more people to be anonymous rather than famous.

@Jeruba DarkScribe, we use the expression “falling in love” all the time in a broad sense, which is the way I meant it, as I explained.

Must be a demographic thing. I hear “I love that resort”, or “my granddaughter adores Nemo”, but very seldom “I have fallen in love with…” and never here. When I have heard or read it I regard it as in much the same way as any modern distortion/torturing/misuse of language – never as a viable alternative use of the phrase. I am surprised to find anyone as erudite as you accepting it.

Still, as I said earlier, I don’t see any major difference in the psychology of modern man/youth, just in the world that they interact with. It can be fascinating to read some of the old Greeks/Roman writers – classified philosopher or not – and see how “modern” their comments and gripes about society, politics, merchants, mothers-in-law, youth etc., seem. The same with early Chinese writers.

I don’t think the psychology is different. I think the experience is different.

My point is unchanged: the Internet fosters a false sense of intimacy with strangers and leaves us with a lot of emotionally unsatisfied people. This leads to more of the same.

The language I would use in either formal or literary writing is not necessarily the same as what I might use in speech or in a casual context such as this. I’d expect to find greater tolerance for idiosyncratic locutions here, and I’d like to think my point can still be understood.

@Jeruba I’d expect to find greater tolerance for idiosyncratic locutions here, and I’d like to think my point can still be understood.

I have learned something, and that will colour future attitude to this use of a the expression. I have not experienced it as a part of day to day terminology – I have only seen it in US TV shows, usually used by a gushing teenage girl – the type who uses “Oh my God!” forty times an hour and “so” and “like” forty times per minute. As stated, I regard you as erudite and as such realise that is is creeping into mainstream usage. Sadly.

@ratboy yes. It makes you seem like a tool.

There were always people who sought attention, but before the internet people were more likley to be famous for an actual accomplishment or talent. Now that anyone with a webcam who fancies themselves a special unique snowflake can get on cam, contriubte nothing original, and achieve a small ammount of fame for what is esentially a parallel on the fakeness and emptyness of the digital age.

@DarkScribe, note that one of my citations (the electric car) was from the Times Online (UK). I chose it to show that this is not just an Americanism.

Still, I would not call the use of this expression erudite, no matter who employed it.