People aren’t mirrors; they are projectors, and they want you to see the show that they are putting on. Observation is not a skill-set possessed or employed by everyone. Sometimes though, it is that the person expecting to be observed has done such a good job of being a reliable part of the scene that they are valued as much as the chairs that are sat on, and the desks that are sat at.
When other people do something it is considered novel, but when these people who rank alongside the furniture in terms of how much they have become background, the activity can see as inessential in terms of a source of newness, as these good old reliable people you can depend on and forget to notice.
If you somehow turned yourself into a mirror and forgot to be a projector, then no one is really going to seek out what you have to show. You lose all impetus – you are like those patients in Awakenings waiting to steal your momentum from a ball. You have nothing to reflect, you dull, you fall into disrepair, and you are not even useful furniture anymore.
Often it starts with realising that you don’t want to project anything, or witness your own projection. You start to reflect on yourself, and it all turns inward. Doesn’t even take a stone to shatter you, you just grow brittle and fall apart.