The Great American Attention Grab

Quote of the day:
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
--Herm Albright

There are many strange behaviors and sicknesses shown and written about in the news. The most pervasive, pernicious and persistent one is the attention grab.

As humans, we all need a little attention--a little love, if you want to put it that way. And when we’re kids we learn about getting attention. We learn that it comes to us without our effort, or that we have to constantly ask or work for it. We learn that it’s easy to get, hard to get, or impossible to get.

We get too much attention or too little, or just about the right amount. We get accustomed to constant attention, or we adjust to neglect, or something in between.

We all like attention, in varying amounts. Some of us like it a little too much. Some of us cannot stand it if someone else in our family, social circle, or workplace is getting more attention than we are. To deal with this, we demand attention--by being rude or by putting down the other person or by plotting and scheming.

Celebrities often have an insatiable need for attention, no matter what field they work in. Recent example: Pat Robertson predicting a terrorist attack in 2007. (Give us a break, Pat.) Perpetual example: Paris Hilton.

Being well-known doesn’t create the need for attention but rather feeds it. If there is already some sickness present (including a childhood with way too little or way too much attention), an addiction is born, which may be inflicted on all of us for years to come.