Obsessed with Ratings

Should one be obsessed with chess ratings?  Are the better chess players giving a lot of attention to their ratings?

Personally, I take a relaxed approach to ratings.  My skill level is at the learning stage, so ratings don't concern me.  

It bothers me to lose a game only until the next game is started.  

That is nice

I don't care for my chess ratings. Some really are obsessed with their ratings as if it is their ego. Can't blame them. Even the pros are obsessed with their ratings.

I dont cate about ratings..but i do care passionately about my chess and improving....if the former comes with the latter...that is fine

As Dan Hiesman coaches, worry about what you're learning, and your rating will take care of itself.  Your rating only shadows your strength (do you suddenly get worse after you resign?  Do you suddenly get better when your opponent overlooks your mate threat?)

Do I worry about my rating?  Well sure :p  I want to know if I'm improving or if I've gotten worse I want it to be minimal.  But I don't sweat it game to game.  Let it worry you once a month, or ~ every 20 games or something like this.  The rest of the time get obsessed about your mistakes i.e try to never repeat them.  That's the sign your skill is increasing, when you're not losing in the same ways.  If you keep doing that your rating will eventually catch up.

Thanks everyone for all your thoughtful comments.

I was just curious to know if I was overlooking some "benefit" of keeping close track of my ratings.

mmmmm....waffles...!  I have a chronic problem of "leaping" before I look. I remind myself before each game to avoid losing pieces or getting into bad chess positions.  It's an ongoing problem, but I'm slowly overcoming it.

Well the pros base their whole livelihood on their rating, so I see where they are coming from.

To be honest, I'm quite obsessed with my skill level. This isn't necessarily my rating; my USCF provisional rating is under-rated at the moment, and that doesn't bother me. It DOES bother me when I lose to players -- who are rated much lower than me -- for stupid reasons. Note that's not because my rating drops, but because I'm way too competitive. 

I'm more obsessed about my class than my rating though... 

xAsnl, what do you mean by "class?"

My rating online has now gone stupidly high, as I had a bizarre lucky streak, winning my first 5 games. Or perhaps I really am worth a 1590 rating, I don't know, I've only been playing a few weeks. 3 of my games were won after big blunders by my opponents, but perhaps 1200-1400 do still make big blunders, and if I can see this and capitalise on it then I should be higher. I guess I'll keep playing higher players until I start to lose then my rating will come down and be closer to my true strength

I'm not playing to get my rating up, but thought it would take me a lot longer to get to my current level, so it is skewing which matches I play, or how others are playing against me. Maybe it shouldn't