Are You an Attention Addict?

Okay… so this isn’t this past wee’s recap, but that’s okay, right? ;)

At church a few weeks back, our pastor Pete Wilson was talking about what it means to be an attention addict.

Please feel free to watch the video below to see the full service.  It’s only about 20 minutes and it really is a great sermon.

Let me just clarify, it’s not that it’s a bad thing to be happy when you receive attention in those forms or otherwise.  Those things just shouldn’t be the source of your happiness.  It’s fun to get likes, share, comments and retweets, but that doesn’t define who you are inside.  Your heart, and who you surrender your heart to, is from where your happiness will come.

I feel like bloggers, in particular, really suffer from attention addiction.

How many twitter followers do I have?

How many Facebook fans do I have?

Oh look!  Someone shared my post!

I got retweets!  Woo Hoo!

Look at all the comments I got!

And the list goes on and on.

And, especially as bloggers, we normally don’t even know the people doing all these things.  There are no real relationships being built.  At least not many.  I will say, I’ve ‘met’ (only online) a few wonderful people since I began blogging that I am thankful for meeting.  One, in particular, I talk to more often than my friends that I have met in ‘real life’.  Anyway, I’m off the point… the point is… we need to stop being so attached to the attention.

And, obviously, it’s not just bloggers that fall victim to this kind of self addiction.  It’s all of us.

It is not this outward attention we should derive our happiness from… it is what is on the inside that counts.  (See your parents weren’t kidding. )

Please, watch the video of the sermon.  It’s really great and does a much better job at getting the point across than I ever could.

I hope you enjoy it.  Please tell me what you think.

Do you think that facebook and twitter and all of these other social media outlets are turning all of us into attention addicts??