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There are two, to some minds, somewhat conflicting ways of behaving. On the one hand we've been taught that it's selfish to ask for things for personal, emotional gain, like attention, ego-stroking, etc. On the other hand, other human beings cannot read your mind, and if you truly need something you're going to have to ask for it right out, specifically because other beings don't carry around a plethora of ESP.
I think the problem exists, as with most things, in perception. Our sometimes overly-romanticised ideals have left bore marks in our psyches and souls the size of fault lines between tectonic plates. We've been taught, or indoctrinated, into believing that asking for personal emotional gain somehow cheapens the experience of it. That's sad, considering how much most of us need more of that emotional gain, and how hard it is for most of us to get any of it. If we don't ask for it, we won't get it.
We dress it up, call it other things, but what it really all boils down to is attention. We crave it, we need it; and there's nothing wrong with either of those things. We're isolated social creatures who aren't always so good at bridging the gap, hobbling ourselves with billions of little questions: How far can I go? Can I even go anywhere? What's going to happen if I say this? What's going to happen if I don't say it? I need his/her time, how do I get some? He/she will think I'm weak if I ask for time, won't they?
And that, my friends, is the crux right there. We've been taught that need is weak. Neediness might be in some cases, might be a tad paranoid or neurotic; but need, basic human contact need, is anything but weak. It's how we're built. It's how we've been taught to express it that has evolved as weak-seeming. We've not been taught to be upfront; we've been taught to wheedle it, manipulate it, play games for it, barter for it, treat it as a commodity, a price, a prize. That's what's pathetic about the whole thing - we've turned attention into a commodity, and gone so far as to build entire religions and philosophies to excuse our doing it.
I'm just as guilty as the next person of all the sins expressed above. I grew up in the same world that produced the rest of humanity, after all. I need just as much as the next person, and I have tried to learn to find better ways of expressing it than wheedling and whining. Sometimes I'm not so good at that. I inwardly bite my tongue on numerous occasions when I find I'm about to do something wholly pathetic. I dislike myself when I don't bite in time and the bullshit ekes out. I have also been just as guilty of making people buy my time, or not giving a simple kind word when that could be all that's needed to save a person's day. I don't much care for myself when I do that either.
A little bit of attention, a simple flirtation, a smile with a greeting ... they're none of them going to cost you a damned thing, and they might gain you something good you wouldn't have got otherwise.