Conversations - "Look at Me!"

I have noticed that most conversations among friends tend to have just one theme - "Look at me!" Children will say it simply and directly, adults say it with varying degrees of sophistication, but it generally boils down to that - and yes, even the motive of this blog is suspect.

I find it fascinating, sometimes irritating, sometimes sad, when people in a group try to hijack the conversation with a louder "look at me" than someone else. One person could be telling a story, some interesting experience they had, and another will pipe up with "that's nothing, here is what happened to me", or "my story is even worse than yours". That latter one is more common, for there is a pride that people take in recounting how horrible they have it in their lives. In other words, "look at me, I'm more pathetic than you are!"

P.G. Wodehouse of course summed it up as only he can in his story about medical retreats - how a class system develops based on how bad one's illness is.

The more sophisticated variety of this is of course the person who is smart enough to tell jokes, recount wonderful stories, and generally be the life of the party. People are attracted to this variety of a person, though the underlying message is still "look at me!" I guess the difference is simply that here the reasoning is "look at me because I'm so funny/smart/sexy etc." This blog I suppose falls into that category - "look at me for being so smart and observing this phenomenon."