This isn't as emo as the title sounds, I swear.

Many people- myself included, have a need of some sort to be heard. The problem, bluntly, is that no one else cares. No one cares if you tell them something you've never told anyone before, or if you just had a breakthrough/down, or if what you just said is important to you. No one but a few care, and how are you supposed to determine that?

Now I'm thinking about myself. I care, at least a little. If someone was talking to me and and mentioned that something they just said was soemthing they'd never been brave enough to tell anyone, something in me would think "Oh....OH. Wow. Thanks." Nothing effusive, but not the "Who gives a crap, you dumb *****? I couldn't care less about you" that most people would have.

Is it so wrong to want to be liked, or even loved? To want to feel known and connected with someone, or am I nothing but a stupid, worthless, hyperemotional imbecile who deserves to be used and laughed at?

It makes sense though, people are self-centered by nature; more focused on their own story than someone else's. I admit it in myself. I guess I like to think I could at least appreciate the feelings of someone confiding in me, and honor them empathically, and is it so much to hope for something similar in return?

All this erupted out of fantasy, imagining myself being really, truly authentic in front of someone...and getting this reaction, more or less. I hang out enough online to see people who give accounts of how someone poured their heart out to them, and they (the writer) wondered why this person trusted them so much when they didn't even care. It's a really common phenomenon, plenty of people seem to take a "Never tell anyone anything because they don't care" attitude that I can't live with. I suppose on some level it's a relief that someone might not care - you can't be too cruel if you don't actually care. But invalidation is a neighbor to outright rejection.

The internet at least offers a buffer: you can read or not, and the person on the other end only needs to know when you read (a like or a comment). That's quite different from being blown off, even privately, by a flesh-and-blood person.

Some thoughts.