I wish it were more socially acceptable to say “I feel lonely & I need attention.” We shame direct requests for attention, so I think a lot people online default to adversarial positions, use activist or academic language for engagement and to make that desire feel more noble.
I know I’ve been guilty of this. It’s why I call myself a performer & not an activist. Activism requires a relationship to ego I’m not capable of. It’s a kind of decentering of self I have too much respect for just to claim as my own identity whenever I feel lonely.
Frankly I have enjoyed twitter less and less the more attention I’ve gotten on it. It means something to some people that it doesn’t mean to me. And because people can see you as a means to an end for attention, they often default to bad faith interpretations on purpose.
Much of what we associate with handling attention “well” is just handling it in private. It usually doesn’t bother me bc needing to start an argument just to talk to someone to me is kinda sad. But sometimes it is annoying to watch strangers be so certain about your character.