Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Attention!

First of all, I'd like you to take a detour over to librarian Mindy McGinnis' blog, where she has a lovely post about the immaturity of teens these days. And now, back to me, because I matter.

I want your attention. And I don't believe I'm alone. When was the last time you met someone who wanted something else? Companies just want attention. The end goal is to get people into their stores, but for the first step, they just want people to look at their ads. Valentine's Day is coming up. Billions of dollars in chocolate and roses and paper hearts just to make lovers pay attention to each other. Activists just want attention. They want people to come to their rallies, raise fists, shout slogans, and they want some of those people to be journalists, who just want attention as well. Attention is reading their articles. As a blogger, I want something very similar: attention in the form of pageviews.
"I think, therefore I am," Descartes said. Well, maybe that's enough for him. But I need other people to look at me, talk to me, step out of the way when I walk down a hall. Then I'll know I exist.
I've been accused of faking migraines for the attention. I'm by no means alone in this. Teenagers, especially teenage girls, are hard pressed to claim their status as bully and rape victims. Rule of thumb: If we claim a problem, it never happened, and we want attention. But if we cause a problem-beating up other kids or tagging a wall-then we're doing that for the attention too.
I've been able to find a sliver of sympathy for adults who tout this tried and tired phrase. Perhaps it's a coping method. They've heard rumors that the world has fangs and teeth, that every problem from rape to headaches is real, that problems can hit close to home instead of just striking long ago and far away. And not only can they affect people in their lives, but those half-people, children, they're susceptible too. Children, the ones they're burdened to protect.
Keep up the good work, girls. Win scholarships, make discoveries, start a Twitter fight-whatever you can do to make someone look at you. They've figured out that we exist. If we can get a little more attention, they might realize we matter too.




3 comments:

  1. Love Your Post! I guess it is true, everyone (including me..) wants attention. You won't believe what some teens in my school end up doing for it.

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  2. Can I have your email? I really like this post, and I'd love to republish it.

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  3. You can republish it via facebook, twitter, or email by clicking the "more" button at the top of the screen.

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