The kind where if you have to be around people you feel more comfortable in a group than with just one other person?

I get nervous around "dead air" if I'm with people so if I'm the only other person I feel pressure to be interesting and it's exhausting. If there's a group of people it's not so bad because it divides the responsibility of being entertaining around all of us so I don't have to worry if I'm boring. I can just chill and let other people talk.

Plus I find I'm better at bouncing off of others than initiating conversation.

  • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    How do you run out of things to talk about? You don't have a mental encyclopedia of weird animal facts to fall back on like how penguins practice prostitution for the shiny stones they use to make their nests?

    • knifestealingcrow [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I could talk about how there's a species of jumping spider than spends hours planning their ambushes, even going well out of line of sight of their prey, because they hunt other jumping spiders and evolved to outsmart them, or the fun fact that there is a very very low but non-zero chance that someone peeing in a swimming pool can cause an explosion, but people usually don't take to those

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        or the fun fact that there is a very very low but non-zero chance that someone peeing in a swimming pool can cause an explosion

        :wholesome: thank god they put this chemical in the water that turns red when somebody pees in there

      • dat_math [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        there is a very very low but non-zero chance that someone peeing in a swimming pool

        Please elaborate on this.

        • knifestealingcrow [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Exaggerating a bit but basically an oxidizing source of chlorine (pool chemical, specifically the one that makes your eyes red) and a source of nitrogen (urine) could make nitrogen trichloride, an incredibly sensitive explosive. Incredibly unlikely to happen because A: it's incredibly sensitive, so much so that a slight change in the amount of light can set it off and it would probably react at incredibly small and unnoticeable amounts B: you'd need to get a really high concentration for it to cause anything significant C: the reaction has to happen in the first place, and there's lots of other things in pools that those ingredients could bond with instead

          I'd put the odds of it happening at higher than splitting an atom accidentally while biting into a sandwich, but probably lower than thoroughly shuffling a deck of cards and them being in the same order as pre-shuffle

          For the record, I'm not a chemist, this is 3 am YouTube rabbit hole info from watching haha funny Aussie man make it. Also obligatory "don't try this at home" for obvious reasons since looking at it weird can cause it to go boom