I agree. I think it’s kind of like how we discovered that cheap, abundant, calorie dense foods aren’t good for people. Humans evolved in circumstances where we weren’t ever likely to have as much calorie dense food as we wanted, so we have wiring that tells us to eat as much as we can (which can hurt us).

I think the same is true of positive attention. We’re social creatures, that’s part of how we survive. In the past we wanted to be part of a group, and having status in a social hierarchy could be a matter of life or death. Now that there are billions of people, and social networks make it possible to interact with a LOT of them. Humans evolved in circumstances where we weren’t ever likely to have as much attention as we wanted, so our wiring tells us to glut ourselves on as much attention as we can, which can hurt us (obsession, narcissism, etc.).