The Attention Whore Generation

(Before I even start, I just want to point out that this is a guest entry in this blog. These are not the words of Per Svensson.)

You know what really grinds my gears? Some people of my generation, and probably quite a few of the ones from the generation before it and surely one hell of a lot of those in the generations after it as well. And here's why:

Yesterday in Sweden a guy who suffered from Asperger Syndrome and Autism started a thread on a forum, stating how he was going to take his life and show it live on webcam. Nothing new right, things like these have happened before. People on the forum responded, called him a troll and dared him, and the net result was that he did it. Maybe he had already set his mind to it, so the few who tried to tell him not to did not make him change his mind. But maybe the people who dared him made him actually do it, who knows. I'm told people who suffer from the psychological illnesses named above don't understand irony, when people are not being serious and stuff like that. In any case, he did it and it did not take long before media (who apparently don't usually write or talk about suicides in order to not make others want to do it, or so I'm told) went all over it. Popular daily magazines wrote several news articles, debate articles and what not. The next day there's even an article about a guy who claims he was going to do THE EXACT SAME THING only two years earlier, and how people on forums lack empathy because they responded similarly to how they had responded to his threat: with accusations of trolling and good luck wishes.

This is where my problem is described. People are attention whores, and it's incredibly annoying. Way to pay respect to somebody by going to a major magazine in order to milk the story and get your own 15 minutes of fame. And for what? So you can have your picture and name in the paper, right by an article stating how you were pathetically threatening to take your life but did not dare, how you probably never were even serious about it? He (I'll refrain from using his real name even though he was stupid enough to have them put it in the article and even have them publish a frigging picture of him in it as well) even says the only reason he didn't take his own life is because the police got there before he could manage to. First and foremost, why would you even take so long time setting things up after you've posted online (to get attention) and/or tell people in real life that you're going to take your life so that people could possibly interfere? Second of all, just because you failed once, what does that change? Why wouldn't you just do it again the next day, or a week later? Everybody is different so he may have his reasons but I've got him coined down as just another one of those attention seekers.

Don't be one.

Lots and lots and lots of people threaten about taking their lives, but I dare say 99%+ of all of them are bullshitting because a) they're not serious, or b) they don't dare. It's just like how some young teenage girls say they're ugly because they want people to tell them they're pretty, and they know they look good in the eyes of some people. The ones threatening with committing suicide just take it a step further, or perhaps just in another direction.

People are egotistical douches who should learn what compassion is and understand that not everything revolves around you.