I made a friend for the first time in four years. We have a lot in common and we’ve both been socially isolated for a long time so our social skills are similar levels of rusty. Which is nice and all, I’m really happy to have so much common ground with this person, but that’s also exactly what the problem is as our conversations never seem to go anywhere. They just feel so stiff and contentless and non-immersive. It’s dry as a desert out there. The vibe isn’t magically vibing and I don’t know how to get that flow going. I’ve gotten embarrassingly used to shorter conversations.
Like my friend will say something or ask a question, I’ll give my best attempt at an open-ended answer, then eventually after some back and forth the conversation will fizzle off. We don’t go anywhere past the initial topic and then there’s this silence after and I don’t really know what I can say after that. I really struggle to build onto their responses.
Any advice would be very very appreciated.