THERE’S one thing in life guaranteed to annoy me more than anything else – and that’s being ignored.
I hate it. I know it’s a tad egotistical, based on a probably spurious belief in my own importance, but I can’t help it.
...Are you paying attention at the back?

Being ignored is something we all experience at one time or another – particularly if you’re a parent.
You know the feeling. You’re asking your child to get dressed/eat their tea/pick up their clothes (delete as appropriate) and they act as if you’re just a part of the furniture, meaning you end up repeating yourself around 90 times before they deign to acknowledge your presence.
Remember Shirley Valentine’s plaintive ‘I may as well talk to the wall’ speech? I often feel like the wall is the only one listening to me.
And then there’s friends. You know the feeling: you’ve left several messages on their answerphone but they don’t reply. Or you send someone a text requiring an answer, and you don’t get one. Or you leave a mate a message on Facebook and then wait expectantly – sometimes forever – for an acknowledgement.
First you start doubting yourself. Did I press the send button? Did I ring the right number? Did I say/type something to offend?
Then you start doubting your own importance. Am I really this person’s friend? Do they instead see me as an irritant? Am I really – please God, no – a Billy No Mates who no-one likes?
Modern technology has made this phenomenon worse, of course. Where once we could happily wait weeks for a reply to a letter, now we feel slighted if our message is not returned in a couple of minutes.
The dreaded Facebook is a case in point. As it enables us to see what our friends – and friends of friends – are up to, it is fraught with potential social anxieties.
Why is she sending her a message and ignoring mine? Why did everyone get a virtual cocktail except me? When was that party they’re all talking about, and why wasn’t I invited? Why has no-one answered my question?... Why am I such a loser?
It probably says a lot about my life at the moment when I reveal that the only person who contacts me weekly is my mother (oh, and those nice Indian people who keep wanting to know how much debt I’m in...)
Maybe I just need my ego stroking a bit more.
I said maybe I just need my ego stroking a bit more!... Are you listening to me?... Hello?

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit