Quote: (08-14-2016 07:16 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:
I think that many men -- and 'sphere dudes in particular -- misunderstand the reason for women's love of, and addiction to, social media. It's really not just attention whoring. Of course there is plenty of that, but it's far from being the whole story, or even most of it.
The even more important reason -- so basic and simple that it can almost be forgotten -- is that most women are very social creatures. They love and enjoy social action, of almost every kind, for its own sake. They love conversation, intrigue, gossip, the whole gamut of the social game, and they love it in the same ineluctable way as many men love driving a car. Women hate boredom and the experience of social isolation, even if it lasts a mere moment; so they're always looking to stir things up, to get some social action going. And this is the one (non-sexual) aspect of life that they are often good and creative at.
Social media provides them with an endless opportunity to do so, and being the simple and direct creatures they are, they take it -- because why wouldn't they? It expands the circle of possibility tremendously -- but it's not merely, or even mainly, for the purpose of directing pointed attention to themselves; that is a part of it and more so in some cases than others, but it's as often as not subsumed in the more basic purpose of just having an ever-replenished and ever-absorbing supply of things to gossip about, to bitch about, to laugh about, to whine about and to share -- and this, for them, is a greater part of life than most men can readily imagine.
If you take this humble Texan slut, is she really posting this Tinder exchange to "attention whore"? Sure, but more than anything she posts it because it's part of her natural social instincts: she sees the dude win the gold medal, she recognizes him from her Tinder, and she's like "OMG, this is so crazy... I have to tweet this!!". She is not really doing this out of a deep seated need for validation as much as because she is a completely social creature and she cannot imagine missing an opportunity to get some action going, maybe some retweets, some correct OMGs and other reactions from her friends in her timeline, even something from her mom (this is from her Twitter account):
![[Image: Cp2ERpGUIAA1mZ6.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cp2ERpGUIAA1mZ6.jpg)
If she can get some attention whoring props from this, so much the better -- but it's not really the most basic thing that drives her (and of course the crack that this is her "greatest accomplishment" is meant as a self-deprecating millennial piece of sarcasm, lest someone mistake it for anything else).
TLOZ, great points. Its so inherent in who they are, the socialness and attention seeking. Allow me to pile on a theory I've been toying with lately and forgive me as I'm not as eloquent as you.
I worked in a female dominated office for two years and wow the bullshit I'd hear. Whining, preening, screaming, crying [my manager cried infront of the CEO and SVP at a bar. Like full blown on, had a meltdown when the affable CEO asked a question about an intraoffice quibble over a client and she shouted "I DONT WANT TO TALK ABOUT" while bursting into tears and running to the bathroom. To which the blunt. man of the people CEO says "WHOOPS, wrong question"], temper tantrums, gossip, inane social media bullshit, and everything inbetween. I could go on adnauseum but you get the picture.
My head hurt for quite some time. My soul was flatlined.
Then one day, after being bitter with this shit for too long, it made sense.
You know how your mom just can't help but inquire about something when you return from a trip? How women can't help but comment on the weather? How they can't help but complain if the pizza is a little messy or the elevator is too cramped?
Its all a reproductive/survival mechanism. By bringing up this bullshit, they get attention and thus if something goes right or wrong, those eyes paying attention will have human instinct take over and come to the rescue.
Thats why women are so social, safety in numbers. They dont actually care about anything theyre discussing. They care about what the social stickiness "investment" provides them.
Whether its good attention or bad, the goal is attention. Attention is safety for them.
Also, going to the reproductive point, if they have attention, they are worth of care and investment and thus will have provisioning if a RVF'er shoots a live one and pulls the rip cord once the tab turns blue. SEE, Mommy, might not be able to lock daddy down but her social skills locked you down that sweet lego set, Gameboy plus, and some other shit.
Once I understood all this, I stopped "hearing women" and started hearing white noise from them.
It also explains why some chicks resent men on a gut level and others love the "bad boy independent" streak, we dont need their fucking nets and can fend for ourselves. (I thought of goldmund when I wrote that line, no homo)
Ok, thats it. TLOZ, great stuff. Interested to see if my "meta" analysis on attention is obvious everyone or I'm a genius. HA!