The urge to belong is universal. So would a better understanding of it attend tackle loneliness – and explain why stalkers,spree killers and jihadists turn their pain on others?
There is a famous Jewish mother joke. You’ve heard it before. Question: How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb? retort: “Ah no, I’ll just sit in the murky. Don’t worry approximately me.” It’s comical, or at least the first time,because people do behave like this. “Hey, over here!” they shout. “Ignore me! Ignore me!”Everyone needs attention, or like we need to eat. This is not controversial,nor is it hard to understand. But the idea must be slippery, because it will not stick. whether we could hold in intellect that people need attention, or it would change the way we see nearly everything they do,from art to crime, from romance to terrorism. And we must. Facebook alone harvests and sells the attention of 1.4 billion people every day. That’s approximately a fifth of the world. This alarms some people, and it is a big change. But we can’t know what to make of it until we understand what people need attention for.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk