ATTENTION is something, someone wants at many times during his/her lifetime.
Personally I don't believe wanting attention is a bad thing; it's the way you go about it to achieve it.
Another belief is that there are two types of attention, good and bad.
The good would be being praised and receiving compliments; on the other hand the bad would be being on the delivery end of gossip and rumours; although the receiver may not see it as bad.
Many may think that whether it's good or bad, attention is still attention.
However, the definition is taking notice of something then regarding it as important or interesting.
Therefore if it's bad is it still attention?
Today's new technology is highlighting attention seeking and the effects of bad attention.
With the new Facebook update – people, aka naive girls, are happily willing to upload photos with shorts that allow people to see bum cheek and tops allowing cleavage; I don't understand why they find it acceptable either!
I do have an understanding, however, that these adolescent girls believe it will appear attractive and gain attention from boys their age, not quite understanding they're more likely to attract sex offenders.
It seems to me that they don't realise it's bad attention they're receiving.
These naive girls will then go on to complaining about the bad interest they seem to be attracting, yet carry on with what caused the problem in the first place.
Though what do you do with attention you don't want?
We get told to ignore it but that seems to be impossible.
It's almost like bad attention is a lose-lose situation.
When thinking about attention, I often wonder why we want it.
In some cases the person may have low self-esteem and need a boost about how he/she feels about themselves.
With low self-esteem comes the two ways of compliments.
You either a) accept the compliment given to you whether or not you believe it or b) you don't accept the compliment resulting in more compliments and a dig of being an attention seeker.
Personally I don't think people who neglect compliments are always attention seekers, they are simply unwilling to accept that someone may have positive thoughts about them, leading back to low self-esteem.
Another belief is that someone may crave attention because of their past.
They may be missing out on the attention they feel they need at home, evidentially making themselves vulnerable.
My question is, if they aren't receiving attention at home and are lacking support does that make them attention seekers?
What I don't quite understand is who sets the line in the area of attention, society or yourself?
I have a strange feeling it's society but I don't believe that's OK.
Society is controlling too many people nowadays.
As always, fashion has to have some sort of input.
In this case it is impacting on attention; giving people an idea of what they believe attracts interest.
This connects with the short shorts and low-cut vest tops that are taking every town by storm.
Although body parts do seem to attract awareness whether good or bad, a fashion of "grunge", "hipster" and "indie" has also taken towns by storm, adolescents believing their style is individual and unique, that everyone stops to double take and you can't find their style anywhere else.
Well, in all fairness, they're wrong.
Their style is, in fact, everywhere and they are, in fact, no matter how hard they find it to admit it, following the crowd.
Piercing, tie dye tops, skinny jeans and a skateboard is everywhere you turn – it may have attracted the right attention at first but now it's common, and taking it to the extreme like some are, it's bad attention and abuse.
Just the way society likes to work, whether you want it that way or not.
There's so much more to say but not enough words to say it in.
Therefore I'll repeat, why do we want attention and what actually makes an attention seeker?