• unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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    5 hours ago

    Its only “small talk” if you dont actually care about what the other person says. If you are genuinely interested, then its just a conversation. Thats how i see it at least.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, this. Talking small is faking interest. I’m not good at that. But when I actually care about the other person, “what have you been up to” is meaningful. Cause I actually wanna know.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      Yeah but small talk can get the ball rolling on a real conversation. It’s just a way of initiating a conversation and it’s giving an opportunity for someone to talk about things they might be interested in.

      “It’s nice day out today!” doesn’t literally mean that. It means “there’s an opportunity for us to do something outside if you’d like, but if not, perhaps you’d care to discuss something that’s important to you instead? Of course you you aren’t interested in having conversation or doing an activity, I’m perfectly fine with that too” but in a significantly more concise way. Sure you don’t really care about their opinion on the weather or whatever small talk, but it’s a completely open-ended expression of a willingness to have a conversation about something that matters to the other person. It’s opportunity to have a real conversation without any pressure to have a real conversation.

      Also it’s not that hard to do.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        Yeah but small talk can get the ball rolling on a real conversation.

        It can also be used defensively to avoid having the ball get rolling on a real conversation. This is a key defensive use of small talk which can be deployed at occasions such as “Family Gatherings”, “Workplace Water Coolers”, “Sports Events”.

        If you know your relative is a conspiracy theorist and will inevitably try to use a gap in the conversation to talk about how the Jews are using their Space Laser to Direct Hurricanes at Lithium Deposits to Remove the Lawful Inhabitants from their Rightful Land… deploy small talk to avoid this.

        P.S. Avoid “the weather” as that’s an opening to talk about how the recent hurricane was controlled by Blackrock.

      • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        “it’s not that hard to do” is absolutely giving never had a mental illness vibes

  • mhague@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    How do people who don’t like the color chartreuse expect to color things? Chartreuse is my favorite color!

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    My inability to carry even a basic conversation is just one of many reasons I have no plan to be in any kind of relationship, sustained or not, meaningful or not

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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    3 hours ago

    Some people view certain talk as smalltalk but im always up to know about the weather or bad traffic or anything I can avoid or indulge in if I can.

  • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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    7 hours ago

    Sometimes you don’t need to fill the silence with sounds. I’d rather be in a relationship with someone that we can sit down and be quiet together

    • Trollception@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      Or you can use literal sounds instead of words. My spouse and I have this thing going on where we make this kind of squeak/baloon sound with our mouth which has the same effect as “hi, nice to see you”.

      • FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee
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        57 minutes ago

        Me and my gf usually say Ahoozles (shortened from Anyhoozles) and just a way of saying “I want to talk to you, I just don’t know what I want to talk about

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Oh thank god my partner and I aren’t the only ones. Don’t get me wrong, we know and like that we’re weird, but it’s nice to have company.

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        They did say “sometimes”, but it seems like you took that to mean “all the times”?

        • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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          6 hours ago

          Everything is a balance and people are different anyways. I don’t know many people who like any of the extremes. But it’s a different amount for everyone. And the “partner” thing is strange anyways. As long as you’re madly in love, you probably enjoy hearing about every pea in their canteen meal. That might fade after 20 years of marriage. Or a stressful day at work. Or with kids. Or it doesn’t. Both is fine. As long as it’s consenting partners. 😆

  • Sigilos@ttrpg.network
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    7 hours ago

    The key to understanding is finishing the sentence.

    “I hate small talk… with people I have no reason to talk to and don’t care about.

    I love my partner, and even when it’s small talk I can listen all day, just to hear their voice and learn a little more about them, to feel closer to the person I married in many small ways.

    But I don’t care about what Jim at the laundry mat did last weekend, or which machine he thinks makes socks dry faster.

    • variants@possumpat.io
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      5 hours ago

      But small talk is what got you your wife. What if Jim can be your future if you just gave him the time

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      But I don’t care about what Jim at the laundry mat did last weekend, or which machine he thinks makes socks dry faster.

      tough. :) here’s what he (might have) said: it’s the 2nd and 3rd dryers from the left. the smaller ones. you also need to use the smaller ‘double load’ front-loading washers. those have an extra extract cycle and get the most water out. the dryers used to literally only cost 25c to dry most loads (an extra quarter for all denim or something), but they (new owners of the laundry) increased the minimum needed per-load to $1.50 (on top of more than doubling the washers’ prices). greedy bastards.

  • jaschen@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    Honestly, I always engage in small talk. You can hate it but I see you on a regular basis and I’m always attempting to make a connection, one day we will connect.

  • Anna@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    I think no matter what we do most of the things are outoff our control

  • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    My wife is a VERY quiet person. She doesn’t say a lot but when she does it’s because she actually has something to say. This made me nervous when we were first dating but I’ve learned to embrace it. Silence is OK. She definitely talks more than she used to but we don’t have to talk all the time. Sometimes she just looks at me and smiles without saying anything and in those moments I know that I am loved.

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      Not just extroverts. I’m pretty introverted but I’m also the type of person who is very heavy on verbal communication and I tend to get a lot of my affirmation through words.

      Being “still” is a learned skill for me.

    • EABOD25@lemm.ee
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      6 hours ago

      Wonder if Twitter person who made that comment just has people who don’t want to have small talk with them

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    5 hours ago

    Ha, jokes on them! I haven’t been in a relationship in about a decade and I don’t see that ever changing so I don’t need small talk!

    …wait. Who’s the joke on?

    :P

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    Idk that I really do small talk OR do philosophical conversations with my partner but I’ll let you judge. Here’s the sort of things me and my partner say to each other throughout the day:

    • wanna play [whatever co-op we’re into lately]? (Then several hours of strategy discussions)
    • did you eat all the chips again you FUCKER followed by BITCH WHAT IF I DID YOU ATE ALL THE OREOS???
    • If all dogs go to heaven do their people have to be there for it to be a dog heaven and does that mean hitler is in heaven because he had a dog?
    • miscellaneous bitching about our jobs
    • wanna fuck
    • the dog pissed in the elevator again it’s your turn to go clean it
    • did you see the sweater I put the cat in?
    • Debates about whether or not a taco is a hot dog or vice versa
    • how many toys do you wanna get out for the fucking and more importantly how many are you willing to clean
    • that book you made me read is really melodramatic but I agree it’s about black mold.
    • we should go visit the hot tub vs no it’s too fucking cold vs that is the point of it being a HOT tub
    • wanna play cards against humanity with the cat
    • debates about who will hold the cat while we trim her claws
    • yelling at each other for being too loud while the other is sleeping and which offense is fundamentally more heinous (dayshifter vs nightshifter)
    • discussing the biopunk visuals in lexx and how they would have made all the butthole windows out of fabric
    • random nonsense words and noises like doing an entire karaoke bit but all the words are “doodoodoodoo doodley dooooot doo”
    • discussions about farscape’s costuming department’s extensive use of bondage gear
    • putting peanut butter on TOP of the dog’s snout then filming her
    • what if we feel like we’re seeing God when we’re on mushrooms because the mushrooms ARE god and we’re all just fundamentally here to feed them
    • blaming each other for the peanut butter thing to get the other person to clean it up
    • talking about weird internet personalities like chrischan or the tile patterns guy
    • calling each other old for stuff like heartburn after pizza or chronic injuries flaring up with the weather