Having an interesting conversation with someone you just met. I see people do this shit all the time and they make it look like it comes narurally but every time I’m in that situation it is so difficult. Its like a series of quick time events that im severely underprepared for

I learned to combat this with 3 simple questions:

What kind of job do you do? (Or study)

Where do you live?

Do you have any kids, dog,…

Be interrested in their answers and add some simple follow-up questions that show you are listening. Add some content of your own as a follow-up.

Posing that first question can be a bit weird, but the rest is as simple as it sounds.

Be interested in their answers

Yeah, so, that’s where I usually drop the ball. What if I’m just… not?

That’s where I rely on “fake it till you make it”.

What if, completely hypothetically of course, I’m pushing 40 and only moderately depressed but still prefer the company of my dogs to most people?

What kind of dogs do you have?

Sweet, dumb, wonderful shelter mutts.

What are we using to post videos to Lemmy at this point? It still doesn’t seem to work from Voyager.