[shoelaced]

I apologize (who me?) if this has been discussed already... I am a newb to this forum and haven't found anything in depth about it thus far.

Generally, as an INFP, how do you feel about small talk?



I, for one, cannot stand it.. I am not good at it and I would go so far as to say I hate it. What about you? I feel like this is one of the main social problems I have. I cannot fake it. I am expected to engage in it and I simply can't.. I can fake a lot of social norms that I don't necessarily prescribe to, but this is definitely not one of them.

[h4zmat]

I fake it, badly. I've always felt small talk was pointless and never really bothered, but now I work customer service so I'm sorta forced to.

[rowingineden]

Hate it, I can do it, but usually I seem to miss the mark on it. When I was younger (5-9 years), I would start a conversation with questions like, "Do you believe in God?" or, "So, do you think life has meaning? If so, what is the meaning?" And my peers would be like, "...So, then my Pikachu evolved!" or "So, I got ANOTHER hairbrush! Hehehehe!" (depending on if they were male or female) The problem is, I don't feel interested in or even qualified to speak on most subjects. I know other people don't care if they are ignorant about things, but I actually really do.

[Raichan]

It depends.

[rowingineden]

It depends.

WTF, that is so brief, it's like you're a J or somethin'!

[Raichan]

WTF, that is so brief, it's like you're a J or somethin'!

What??

I'm not deep in everything *whistles innocently*

[Hammerhand]

Hearing people discuss cars, fashion or similar brain dead subjects make me want to blow my head off >.<

And being told by someone who they met this day, what funny things they saw, what clothes they are saving up for, gaaaaaaah.

Discussing politics, religion, music, games, psychology, people or similar, yes please.

These are pretty much the reasons I dislike family dinners.

Say something that at least is of SOME interest or please spare my ears (and sanity).

Edit: Or at the very least something that is RELATED to what we are doing at the moment. Discussing clothes while walking around shopping is fine, bringing it up while watching a movie is not.

[Sily]

When I am passing people in the hall at work, I love to smile and wave and sometimes there is time to talk about the latest weather alerts, car accident or policy change. For the people who stop by my office to talk... wow, that can range from news about their new car, new phone, latest recipes, Genghis Khan or the american occupation of the Phillipines -- it just depends on who comes in and what they want to talk about. At home, husband and I are usually making fun of people & laughing @ them.

So, all of the above examples, (weather, history, latest events) I do enjoy talking about and participating in, but not sure if that's *small talk*. I really like talking about the weather with people.

[Riy]

I don't like it and I won't fake it, So usually I get called "cold" when someone tries small talk with me ._.

[Windswept Sky]

I don't like it at all and I'm not very good at it.

Probably why I don't make friends very easily. Unless it's a mutual interest or something actually meaningful or interesting, I don't know what to say. When girls tell me about some shoes they bought for some really good deal I have no idea what to say. It probably doesn't sound like a good deal to me, either >_>; I really don't make many female friends...

This is part of why society annoys me. So many things are about surface-level communication. I have no problem with that, as long as it serves a purpose (like "Hey guys, it's raining"), but when people just randomly start going on about something trivial, I don't know how I'm expected to actually be able to communicate back sometimes.

That said I am actually interested in people! I like to have nice positive conversations with strangers at grocery stores or whatever, if somebody friendly talks to me. But I dunno, I find it really hard to relate with some people, especially through small talk.