loner1984 wrote:
Yeah i just want to know if anyone else has run into this, i guess problem or whatever you wanna call it.
YES. I don't like these "thank-yous" or compliments. They are unnecessary; I do things because I consider them to be the right thing to do, not because I need or want acknowledgment. Once or twice, I've even decided to
not help people just to avoid being deluged with effusive displays of gratitude, because gratitude is only one half of it; there's an expected social ritual wherein the deed-doer must acknowledge and respond to the gratitude. The thanker ropes the thanked into this interaction without the consent of the thanked; depending on the circumstances, it's mildly socially coercive, like so many social rituals are. I just wanted to do the deed and get away, not spend my time on an unsolicited social exchange and bother with saying "you're welcome;" talking in general tires me out. I often just mutter, "sure," or "mm-mmm," and walk off.
Another aspect that irks me is that the acknowledgment reinforces the idea that the good deed is something special. What I want is for everyone to do the same sorts of things, for the good deeds to become common behavior, so common that no one would ever even consider bothering with gratitude. Such deeds would be expected, like everyone expects a newcomer to go to the end when joining a line (that's a queue in the UK) rather than stepping in front of everyone else who is waiting. If society operated that way, it would provide the further benefit of rooting out the people who exploit others' gratitude, doing good deeds mainly to garner attention for themselves.
I can only guess why things are this way; maybe people are self-centered sharks and need constant reinforcement to behave in ways that benefit others, or maybe the more emotionally-oriented people in society just assume that everyone needs the same coddling they need to do good, or the more socially-oriented people assume that everyone needs acknowledgment, and they are therefore the ones to perpetuate this unnecessary custom.