Watch popular shows, sports and The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones. Normie shit like that.

Then when someone inevitably brings it up you can talk to them about it.

Or you can be like me and not conform to societies expectations and only engage in meaningful conversation.

Practice my autistic friend. It's the ability to say pointless mumbo jumbo in the proper tones, times that makes u look like normie

>>16526187
what else should i watch

>>16526160
Why would you? You feel like you're saying pointless shit when you're small-talking? Isn't that what small-talk is?

What has helped me making acquiantances (because that's what you should focus on if you're trying to make friends. Friendships grow from acquaintanceships) is becoming curious. Don't focus on making friends. Try feeding their egoes (don't be manipulative about it, you twat). Become genuinely curious. Because who doesn't love talking about themselves? Or their interests? I know I love talking about mine.

Don't overthink things, there is no point. Just go with it. Do some stretching. Look into yoga. Yes, I'm serious. Flow, become fluid, be water my friend, etcetera.

Why would you force yourself into the main-stream river to "make friends"? Do you really think the people you'll meet that way would interest you? I could talk about the new entertainment-thing that just came out to pretty much any guy at my age. Would it interest me? Maybe, to some extent. But, not in the long run. I had a conversation like this with someone I met last weekend. He was an alright dude. We added each other on Facebook. We haven't talked since.
To me, people who follow advice like this don't seem like they have much to live for. Doesn't seem like they're people at all. Ghosts, rather.

You're asking for my advice here, and I've been there myself, as a suppressed child and an awkward teenager. I'm 20 now, so I'm by no means an expert. I'm still working on it. Just jotting down some thoughts.

>>16526160
It'd seem awkward to me if someone I don't know engaged in a very deep conversation out of the blue.

Just stick with the small talk at first and see if it goes somewhere. It's not that easy finding someone you connect to.

>>16526733
You don't get to know someone by talking about the damn weather, do you? You get to know them by knowing who they are. Doesn't mean you'll have to get into deep conversations.

>>16527060
You don't go to strangers and ask them "what's your story?". Hence the "at first" part. Small talk is just an excuse to engage a conversation.

But yeah weather is a shit opener honestly, I never know what to reply in those cases.

>>16527074
Good call. I've done that. It gets weird, yeah.

When do you engage in conversations with strangers, though? I only do it when there's something about them I'm curious about. Wether it be something they're doing, something they're wearing, etc. Or just general stuff, like what the time is. If I want to engage a conversation with a stranger based on personal wants I just can't do it. It'll become obvious.

>>16527101
I'm pretty shy, so obviously I can't explain you how to become the most interesting person in the room because I'm not. I had to change country for my job and got forced into getting new friends from scratch at 25.

I only talk to strangers in social situations: at the counter of a bar, some events or gatherings. I can't chat to strangers in the street or in public transportation (also because when it happens to me it usually annoys me as I'm not prepared in my head for this).

If I don't know what to say, I just say "hi", check if the other person is about to say something, and if not I just introduce myself briefly and ask the other person the same. Small compliments also help people opening (like "I thought you looked like a nice person to talk to", it's obvious, but still pleasant if it looks honest). If both of us can't find anything to talk about after that, I just give up and move on.

From my small experience, the easiest place to talk to strangers and get replies is becoming a regular at a bar, but it almost never become anything else than drinking buddies. On other occasions like events, it's harder to make acquaintances but if I spend more than 30 minutes with someone and want to meet him/her again, we very often end up meeting again after.

Also, I find it almost impossible to engage a conversation with a group of 3+ people when I'm alone.

Just my 0.02

life is pointless. accept this and all/any talk is pointless as small talk. on the flipside, small talk is just as heavy as something more substantial. don't small talk. just talk

Ignore the cringy mgtow-website, but his articles on communication are rather awesome and universal. Helped me alot
http://girlschase&com/content/getting-past-small-talk

(not sure if i get banned for posting link so replace & with .)

>>16526160
Small talk IS dumb, pointless shit. That's its whole point.

Bear with me for what seems irrelevant. Monkeys and chimps "groom" each other, picking nits out of each other's fur. But scientists have discovered that, while getting rid of nits is nice, the real purpose is an excuse to sit together and express friendliness.

People don't pick nits off each other (usually). But we do sit together and chat about things we don't particularly care about, because it's an excuse to sit together. It's like "You make some noises and I'll listen and then I'll make some noises and you listen, and that's how we know we're friends."

WHAT people chat about is far less important than THAT they are chatting.

Step 1: talk about your penis at all times.

Step 2: Oddly, they don't want to talk about your penis. Now is the time to use force. Not saying north or south here but....you know....use force.

>>16527594
I've never really thought about it that way before. Except when I'm high, and I soon forget about it when I sober up and dismiss it as w33d dr34mz

can you give me examples of small talk pls

>>16528048
Did you see [name TV show] last night? wasn't it great/terrible?
How about those [local sports team]? Did you believe that game?
Have you ever had [teacher's name]? What's she like?
Is it true that [boy] and [girl] are a couple? How long has that been on?
I can't wait for the new Star Wars movie. Can you?

And see >>16527594 above.