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Originally Posted by water_boy1999
I don't want to ramble on about things to total strangers if they have no clue what interests me, what I am talking about, or if I think I will be wasting their time. It isn't a matter of being shy because I am far from that, I just think other people might not be interested in what I have to say sometimes. I don't know if it has to do with living in the Bay Area my whole life and people rarely stop just to talk and bullshit nowadays. Everyone seems to be so into themselves that they have lost the ability to speak to a total stranger if it doesn't fit into their schedule.
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I also lived in the Bay Area my whole life, and still live quite nearby. I think you're right about the quality about people being into themselves. But what many have also lost is the ability to see a conversation as a partnership, a duet. Many self-involved people around the Bay Area will take any opening you give them as an opportunity for a 15-minute monologue on what's on their mind, with no attention paid to the input of the other party. And in fact, the most extreme of these people will come up and _start_ a conversation just so they can lecture; they can't contain themselves. I live in Santa Cruz, where standing around looking at a book on global warming in a bookstore can result in somebody with a feverish look in their eyes coming up to you and ranting about the inhumanity of it all. There are just so many people around here hunting for an audience. It's got to the point where I'm pretty gunshy about conversations with strangers who seem overly eager to talk.