I've been trying to make social connections, but the problem is that any time I start to think about how I can start conversations, the conditions are never ideal. Mainly, everyone is either doing a combination of being busy with some activity or talking to other people. How do I join in on the group conversation? Especially if I don't know most/all of the people there?

  • heartheartbreak [fae/faer]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I would counter the last argument with taking group convos like entering a mini game where everybody is listening and also wants to add something, but only if they feel it's worth is above a certain threshold. So there's a cadence to a group conversation endemic to the combination of people in it, and entering a thought at the wrong time adds a kind of debuff to that thought making timing and waiting for somebody to finish their thought very important.

    Secondly, the threshold is context dependent depending on the current topic being discussed. I find that it's always nice to figure out combinations of words that enable other people to be able to speak more freely effectively lowering the threshold. Here is where you can talk about yourself if you'd like, although you don't have to, but always try to make your point something that opens up conversation for the other person. For instance, if somebody is talking about something they did over the weekend you can ask about if they do that thing a lot, or you can add something similar you've done and what you thought was cool about it and if there's anything the other person enjoyed about it etc.

    Conversations are a balance of give and take, and really dialectical in that sense. It's not an antagonistic contradiction of what you want to talk about and what other people want to talk about but rather finding the ground where you are both enjoying the conversation, which also sometimes means just listening to what other people have to say.