I (19F) am not good with conversations with people. I’m very shy and struggle to find things to start and continue a conversation. Although I’m very attentive and immersed in conversations, I try asking questions to continue the conversation, and I try to ask people about themselves and their lives/opinions on things, I think my problem is that I’m boring and really shy. People get bored easily talking to me and I can tell. I’m not good with jokes and I’m not interestingly witty/insightful. I seriously just don’t know how to make conversation without coming off as awkward and boring, or with it having a ton of awkward silences in between.
My current friends are friends I’ve made from being ‘adopted’ by extroverts and becoming friends with their friends. I only open up more if I know what kind of person they are, so that I know how to act around them or whether they’ll accept my personality. I’m good when I know how they are as a person, and usually work around that. When I reflect on the conversations I have with my friends, I find that it’s usually them rambling on about their life and me replying and reacting, or us talking about an event that happened to the both of us.
That’s why it’s so hard for me to make new friends, as I don’t know what to talk about that doesn’t come across as invasive or awkward. When I talk about shared things or ask questions, it usually dies off pretty quickly too. I don’t want to come off as ‘cringe’ either, and I sound unnatural using slang sometimes which makes it hard because a lot of people talk a certain way and I sound so formal and distant compared to them (Partly due to my tone of voice, idk how to fix it). How do I start/continue a conversation without sounding awkward towards new people?