So, generally speaking, I like doing things for people. Whether it's giving people a ride to an event, taking them out for dinner, being the one to drive a long distance to hang out with someone else, or just letting them hang out for a while at a place where they won't be bothered by their roommates/family. At the same time, I'm getting really frustrated by a long-running trend of people who are capable of actually returning the favor making zero attempt at doing so. I try not to be unreasonable in expectations but when I spend hours putting effort into making things happen and then don't even get a response when I'm poking them the next day it's extremely discouraging and depressing.
I'm really not sure what to do about this, either. I don't want to be that asshole who starts saying "What's in it for me?" every time someone asks for a favor. I don't want to completely ignore the needs of others; it's simply not in my nature to refuse to help out an acquaintance when I'm capable of doing so. At the same time, why can't the people I'm doing things for/with even acknowledge my efforts with some token of their appreciation? If there were a good answer of that I wouldn't have felt on the verge of tears for most of the night.
Possibly related to this: Why do so many people I have an issue with end up making it impossible to actually talk to them about it? I end up ignored or explicitly blocked by a rather frustratingly large proportion of people when I say "we need to talk" or something to that effect.
