I think I have figured out why so many people feel sorry for themselves. In this world of everyone living inside their phones or smart devices, few people actually spend any time one on one with real people. We are losing the ability to care about other's feelings. In the wake of that with the human nature of wanting to be cared about, when others do not care about you they only care about their phones, people need to care for themselves. When no one else shows them compassion or pity for things that go wrong in their lives, they fill the void by feeling sorry for themselves.
There are more lonely people these days the world disconnect causes people to feel that they themselves are the only one that cares about them. This comes off as self pity to others seeing it from the outside. I think instead if being critical of these people we need to show a little compassion for them. When someone is starving fro attention from other humans they will do nearly anything to get some/