turn small talk into meaningful conversation

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Absolutely. I've used open-ended questions for quite a while to make conversation. Instead of answering with a quick yes or no, the person needs to respond more thoughtfully, and that leads to better talks. At least, for me.
 
Those are good ideas, in the end though it will come down to chemistry, even online.

Ever started the same conversation online or in real life with a variety of people and received different levels of "success" with each one? Some will make you feel like you are pulling teeth to try and get to know them others will be more animated or open. Just as those who seem unfriendly will be quite friendly with someone else, even if they are asked the same things in the same way.

For example a few months back I started chatting with a lady online and asked a lot of those types of questions that feature in the link, she became pissed off at me for asking open ended questions, even though she was asking me similar ones herself. So I guess we just didn't get along.

Not trying to be negative or anything, quite the opposite as I recall when I was younger doing things like this and still not understanding why it wasn't working for me. The truth is not everyone you talk to will be friendly or responsive regardless or what you ask or how you ask it.

Then you will find someone who you have the right chemistry with and you can talk for hours all because you asked them the time. Chemistry is everything, some people seem to have more of that "chemical mix" than others which is why I think some people do better socially than others do as more people want to be around them.

Just something to keep in mind.
 
Monkee said:
For example a few months back I started chatting with a lady online and asked a lot of those types of questions that feature in the link, she became pissed off at me for asking open ended questions, even though she was asking me similar ones herself. So I guess we just didn't get along.

Probably because they are annoying questions and she was smart enough to see you were not being yourself but instead were trying to apply some horrid marketing techniques you'd read on the internet on her instead of talking to her like a real person from your soul, you acted like a sentient OKCupid questionnaire.

“What’s your story?”
-No, I'm not going to encompass my life and personality and beliefs etc into one of your boxes. You want to know where I grew up? Ask me where I grew up. You want to know what my beliefs are? Ask me what my beliefs are.

“What did you do today?”
-Well I woke up about 50 times and kept getting sucked back into this nightmare I was having about being hacked to bits with a chainsaw, but then I finally managed to return to consciousness and for some reason even though I was having a violent nightmare I had a massive boner... I'm not turned on by violence, I swear!
Anyway I thought about touching myself but I needed to pee so bad and my lips were all slimey and I had carpet-mouth and loads of gunk in my eyes and I think I fell asleep with a beer in my hand because I was sokaing wet too so I didn't feel very sexy.
I sighed with the intensity of a single mother with 10 kids in the supermarket and dragged myself out of bed. I emptied my bladder in the general direction of the toilet and then hacked up a load of green mucous into the sink. Really it was quite impressive - looked like a small alien colony that even Mulder and Scully would have been afraid of.
When I left the bathroom I realised that I actually needed to poop! Don't you just hate that?! Reminds me of being a kid - Auntie Dave would drive us to visit mummy and he would say to us before we got in the car "Right if any of you little shits need to piss or crap then do it now because I aint stopping" and you didn't need to go at the time but then 5 minutes later you do! lol!
Am I going into too much detail here? Sorry, I talk a lot lol. Well, you were asking for a story, not an answer, right?

“What’s the strangest thing about where you grew up?”
-Probably the miracle that is life? Science? The fact that everything we see and hear and smell and touch is made up of SCIENCE and MATHS and people walk around without being plugged into the mains and there is a GIANT MOTHERFUCKING BALL OF GAS in the sky that burns us if we stay under it too long? I don't know dude, what's the strangest thing about where you grew up? (stupid question)

“What’s the most interesting thing that happened at work today?”
-I had a sandwich.

“How’d you end up in your line of work?”
-I'm unemployed. I ended up here because I hate myself and I want to die.

“What does your name mean? What would you like it to mean?”
-I don't know what it means, but I'd like it to mean "Stop asking me stupid ******* questions, *******"

“What was the best part of your weekend?”
-Why can't you just ask me how my weekend was, like a normal person? You are trying way too hard to make me think about honeysuckle and it's draining me. It's not fun or cute that you're trying so hard. It's annoying. But if you must know, the best part of my weekend was where I sat in my pants and browsed the internet, ignoring the outside world.

“What are you looking forward to this week?”
-You not asking me stupid questions anymore.

“Who do you think is the luckiest person in this room?”
-Definitely not me!

“What does this house remind you of?”
-I don't even know where to begin with this one. A horse? A plank of wood? The place where my family was brutally assaulted and tortured to death? Perhaps it is just a house...

“If you could teleport by blinking your eyes, where would you go right now?”
-Anywhere but here, you ******* weirdo.

James: It’s a beautiful day!
John: They say that the weather was just like this when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. If that actually happened.

What a tosser. Avoid this guy like the plague. ******* moron.


Try:
Ron: How was your flight?
Carlos: I’d be more intrigued by an airline where your ticket price was based on your body weight and IQ.

Beverly: It’s hot today.
Gino: In this dimension, yes.

Riz: What’s up?
Keil: Washing your chicken just splatters the bacteria everywhere.

Go ahead, be bold. Upend the dinner table conversation! Turn small talk into big ideas at the next summer wedding reception you’re forced to attend! You never know which ideas will be worth spreading next.

No fresia that, if someone makes shitty small talk then they should expect a shitty small talk answer. It's not the responsibility of the person being spoken to to make the conversation interesting, and even so, saying something cringeworthily "RaNd0m" and hilarious isn't necessarily the way to go. If I ask someone what's up and they talk about washing chicken and bacteria, I'm never going to talk to them again.
 
painter said:
Monkee said:
For example a few months back I started chatting with a lady online and asked a lot of those types of questions that feature in the link, she became pissed off at me for asking open ended questions, even though she was asking me similar ones herself. So I guess we just didn't get along.

Probably because they are annoying questions and she was smart enough to see you were not being yourself but instead were trying to apply some horrid marketing techniques you'd read on the internet on her instead of talking to her like a real person from your soul, you acted like a sentient OKCupid questionnaire.

“What’s your story?”
-No, I'm not going to encompass my life and personality and beliefs etc into one of your boxes. You want to know where I grew up? Ask me where I grew up. You want to know what my beliefs are? Ask me what my beliefs are.

“What did you do today?”
-Well I woke up about 50 times and kept getting sucked back into this nightmare I was having about being hacked to bits with a chainsaw, but then I finally managed to return to consciousness and for some reason even though I was having a violent nightmare I had a massive boner... I'm not turned on by violence, I swear!
Anyway I thought about touching myself but I needed to pee so bad and my lips were all slimey and I had carpet-mouth and loads of gunk in my eyes and I think I fell asleep with a beer in my hand because I was sokaing wet too so I didn't feel very sexy.
I sighed with the intensity of a single mother with 10 kids in the supermarket and dragged myself out of bed. I emptied my bladder in the general direction of the toilet and then hacked up a load of green mucous into the sink. Really it was quite impressive - looked like a small alien colony that even Mulder and Scully would have been afraid of.
When I left the bathroom I realised that I actually needed to poop! Don't you just hate that?! Reminds me of being a kid - Auntie Dave would drive us to visit mummy and he would say to us before we got in the car "Right if any of you little shits need to piss or crap then do it now because I aint stopping" and you didn't need to go at the time but then 5 minutes later you do! lol!
Am I going into too much detail here? Sorry, I talk a lot lol. Well, you were asking for a story, not an answer, right?

“What’s the strangest thing about where you grew up?”
-Probably the miracle that is life? Science? The fact that everything we see and hear and smell and touch is made up of SCIENCE and MATHS and people walk around without being plugged into the mains and there is a GIANT MOTHERFUCKING BALL OF GAS in the sky that burns us if we stay under it too long? I don't know dude, what's the strangest thing about where you grew up? (stupid question)

“What’s the most interesting thing that happened at work today?”
-I had a sandwich.

“How’d you end up in your line of work?”
-I'm unemployed. I ended up here because I hate myself and I want to die.

“What does your name mean? What would you like it to mean?”
-I don't know what it means, but I'd like it to mean "Stop asking me stupid ******* questions, *******"

“What was the best part of your weekend?”
-Why can't you just ask me how my weekend was, like a normal person? You are trying way too hard to make me think about honeysuckle and it's draining me. It's not fun or cute that you're trying so hard. It's annoying. But if you must know, the best part of my weekend was where I sat in my pants and browsed the internet, ignoring the outside world.

“What are you looking forward to this week?”
-You not asking me stupid questions anymore.

“Who do you think is the luckiest person in this room?”
-Definitely not me!

“What does this house remind you of?”
-I don't even know where to begin with this one. A horse? A plank of wood? The place where my family was brutally assaulted and tortured to death? Perhaps it is just a house...

“If you could teleport by blinking your eyes, where would you go right now?”
-Anywhere but here, you ******* weirdo.

James: It’s a beautiful day!
John: They say that the weather was just like this when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. If that actually happened.

What a tosser. Avoid this guy like the plague. ******* moron.


Try:
Ron: How was your flight?
Carlos: I’d be more intrigued by an airline where your ticket price was based on your body weight and IQ.

Beverly: It’s hot today.
Gino: In this dimension, yes.

Riz: What’s up?
Keil: Washing your chicken just splatters the bacteria everywhere.

Go ahead, be bold. Upend the dinner table conversation! Turn small talk into big ideas at the next summer wedding reception you’re forced to attend! You never know which ideas will be worth spreading next.

No fresia that, if someone makes shitty small talk then they should expect a shitty small talk answer. It's not the responsibility of the person being spoken to to make the conversation interesting, and even so, saying something cringeworthily "RaNd0m" and hilarious isn't necessarily the way to go. If I ask someone what's up and they talk about washing chicken and bacteria, I'm never going to talk to them again.

Actually they were open ended questions relevant to our interests, I didn't ask any of the exact questions on that link, simply open ended ones that required more than Yes or No answers.

In terms of your responses to the questions, I think it is a good example of what I was saying about chemistry, I can see myself answering questions like that in a similar manner if I have no interest in talking to someone yet if I was interested I would probably make more effort to help the other person "break the ice".
 
i may just give up completely. Another skill to learn to be more social. whats the point.
 
johnny196775 said:
i may just give up completely. Another skill to learn to be more social. whats the point.

lol a bit like that. That was the reason I was mentioning the whole chemistry thing, if someone doesn't want to talk to you it won't matter what you ask them or how you start the conversation.
 
Monkee said:
lol a bit like that. That was the reason I was mentioning the whole chemistry thing, if someone doesn't want to talk to you it won't matter what you ask them or how you start the conversation.

You make a good point there.
 
You don't want to do any of those things with someone like me. If you strike up a conversation which I can get into I will keep talking. It will grow branches and before you know it a conversation about the weather will have turned into a conversation about a horrible banana cream pie I ate.
 
Sometimes when I have tried to go beyong smalltalk it has worked out and led to a deeper conversation, but other times my attempt has been very clumsy and has left me feeling that I have tried to open a tin by hitting it with a boulder instead of a tin opener.
 
Small talk is about the only socialization I get. Unfortunately I instinctively try to cut it short when it's started by someone else...I really need to work on taking advantage of it to build a deeper conversation. It's a habit that's hard to break.
 
Small talk is something I just can't do. I don't link everything or every trait to horoscopes, but apparently, Libras aren't good with small talk.
 
VanillaCreme said:
Small talk is something I just can't do. I don't link everything or every trait to horoscopes, but apparently, Libras aren't good with small talk.

I've never really noticed if I was good with it or not.. haha. Or maybe people just don't do small talk with me...
 
ladyforsaken said:
VanillaCreme said:
Small talk is something I just can't do. I don't link everything or every trait to horoscopes, but apparently, Libras aren't good with small talk.

I've never really noticed if I was good with it or not.. haha. Or maybe people just don't do small talk with me...

I prefer not to do it. I should say that. Prefer not to. I just think I tend to sit there, smiling like an idiot, because I have nothing to say, but I don't want to be rude. So, I show my crooked tooth in all its glory.

Lady, that snowman clip is funny too. Love it.
 
I think these work to an extent, but the risk is that you wind up performing in a way that doesn't seem genuine or puts the other person on the spot too much. Sometimes people just aren't in the mood for wild, witty banter. The theory of giving more unusual responses and questions to create more interesting conversation is fine, but instead of talking about other dimensions and Pearl Harbor you might want to just ask a gamer about e-sports or a book-lover how they're handling all the new e-reader technology.

On the flip side, people who ask a lot of stock questions (what's up? what kind of music do you like? what kind of food do you like?) also feel like they're forcing things.

Sometimes people do respond to outlandish playfulness, but I think it has to be something real that you can really get into the groove of and not random, potentially offensive quips about a topic like war because you heard it was good for conversation. Some people have much lower thresholds for it than others. A coworker and one of my online chat buddies are weirded out pretty easily.

Sci-Fi said:
You don't want to do any of those things with someone like me. If you strike up a conversation which I can get into I will keep talking. It will grow branches and before you know it a conversation about the weather will have turned into a conversation about a horrible banana cream pie I ate.

That actually sounds pretty fun.
 
Tealeaf said:
Sci-Fi said:
You don't want to do any of those things with someone like me. If you strike up a conversation which I can get into I will keep talking. It will grow branches and before you know it a conversation about the weather will have turned into a conversation about a horrible banana cream pie I ate.

That actually sounds pretty fun.

It's pretty hilarious when you're talking to people that you don't care what they hear you say. My friend gets a kick out of me doing it. I don't really mean to though.
 

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