I have noticed over the last few years that my hodge-podge of rural Midwestern accents have started getting more prominent in increased social isolation after COVID. And this is after kind of working to have a more "neutral" and professional accent for work and there being things that I say that nominally native English speakers (Brits, Californians, etc.) had a hard time understanding. Just wondering if other people here noticed similar things with themselves.
I don't have as much social anxiety as much as I can rock a conversation for the first 30 seconds, then I dead-end and have nothing to say. Small talk is a lot harder when you're never up to something.