Whenever I talk to people, I ask lots of questions to show interest in their lives and goings-on. I figured this was standard practice. I find that some people will ask about me in return and some won’t.
Someone told me recently that I’m supposed to just start talking about myself when people are sharing things about them. Like, if they share an anecdote and I have a related one, I’m just supposed to start talking about it when they’ve reached something of a stopping point. L
Is it not socially correct to wait for people to ask you questions? Should I be volunteering things about myself without waiting for people to ask about them?
1 comment
Well you don’t interrupt them ideally, but when they finish with the thing they said in response to your question, instead of you following up with another question you respond to what they said. Maybe “Oh yeah me too, I always feel like blah blah blah about that,” or “That reminds me of this tangentially related funny story I experienced last year…” etc.
Otherwise it’s sort of like a tennis game where you never hit the ball back to them, you’re only serving the ball. Sometimes that’s necessary if the conversation isn’t going well, there’s never enough to work with… but that’s fairly rare.