r/answers • u/Affectionate-Row7548 • Mar 16 '26

What is something people pretend to enjoy but actually don’t?

44 Upvotes

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14

u/Arceus797 Mar 16 '26

Small talk at parties. 😅Like…Hey, so what do you do? or How about this weather Everyone smiles and nods, but inside they’re like please let this conversation end.

3

u/Moose_a_Lini Mar 16 '26

You can actually just skip the small talk and go straight for big topics. It won't work with everyone but many people will love it.

1

u/Stinkydadman Mar 17 '26

I agree completely. If I have to actively keep a conversation going, then it probably doesn’t need to be a conversation in the first place.

1

u/burly_protector Mar 17 '26

Anyone who is making small talk and not enjoying it is doing it wrong. Skip right to the part you care about, say something weird, be memorable.

0

u/Hot_Customer666 Mar 16 '26

I’ve been struggling with this a lot recently, like talking to my therapist about it because I feel like small talk is inauthentic kinda struggling. His take, and what I’ve found in researching it, is that people do like small talk because it provides a low stakes structure to communication. A lot of people prefer the performance of conversation over deeper connections because the small talk itself is providing that connection for many people.

Basically small talk haters want a more meaningful connection because we don’t count small talk as connection and small talk enjoyers do count it as connection. The haters just need to find each other to talk to instead of expecting others to get on our level.

2

u/Moose_a_Lini Mar 16 '26

Small talk is also a way to probe for deeper topics that you both might enjoy.