I don't think it is necessarily about "approval" per se (as in "please like what I do/who I am"), but rather an assessment of how and where on fits into a social context because those are constantly changing and shifting. For example, if you do work that is for the benefit of people, it can be difficult to assess its impact without feedback. So the feedback is appreciated because it helps to figure out how you and what you do affect social dynamics, not (only) because it strokes the ego. So firsts structure their lives around being part of a group, so they have to be concerned with how they fit in there.
I feel like so gets an unfortunate reputation of being a slave to social approval. You could flip and say it's sad not to care enough about the social context you yourself affect to give a damn about how people are affected by it (because you don't care about their feedback).
I am speaking in general terms, your post was just a starting point.



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