It's only been 5 years...

since my last post.  Not much has changed.  Ha.  I kid.  LOTS has changed, but I don't want to get into that now.  I'm back because I've recently figured out that I use facebook as a blog.  Although that works well for me I'm aware that it doesn't work well for many of the 300+ "friends" I have on there.  I figured I'd get back to actual blogging so I don't feel so guilty about putting all my shit out there on social media.  The fact that I carry any guilt over that is a totally separate issue that I may, or may not, address in another blog post.  BUT today I'm on here to post about attention.  As I've been thinking about it a lot recently.  I've often been referred to as an "attention whore", which I'm pretty sure isn't meant as a compliment.  Facebook is an attention whore's wet dream.  I put something up there, hundreds of people see it and respond.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat and so on...god, I freaking love it!  However, sometimes I'll read someone else's post and think "ugh, they are just crying out for attention" and purposefully ignore the post (if that's such a thing).  Apparenlty, I'm a hypocritical attention whore.  Now that I'm more self-aware I am committed to paying attention to those who need it as I have benefited from the kind souls who give me the attention I am ever-craving.  Here is what I posted on facebook today (before I started to blog again):

As a society, why do we have such a negative response to someone wanting attention? Even worse should they "need" it. We are taught that we should ignore children's attempts at getting our attention because we don't want to encourage them to keep trying to get it? How often have you heard a parent dismiss a child's cries with "He is only doing it to get attention". Well, what the fuck does that tell you????? Does anyone else realize how ridiculous that is? By the time we get to adulthood we view people who crave attention as desperate and pathetic. How sad.
Why not encourage people to reach out when they feel like they could use some extra attention? And why not gladly give it to them instead of rolling our eyes and making them feel badly for wanting it? In this day and age it's virtually effortless to do so. A few words of encouragement, an emoticon, even a simple click of a mouse to "like" a post can go a long way to help fill a void in someone's life.
I don't want to feel ashamed that I feel good when people pay attention to me and I am committed to providing attention to anyone who shows me that they need it.

Good, right?  Someday I'm hoping some shit I wrote will go viral.  I have lots of good stuff to say and I'm looking forward to having the "appropriate" place to say it.