I'm just trying to relate - eviltoast

Image of a screenshot of Twitter of a screenshot of Facebook.

The Facebook screenshot reads:

Fun fact about me: When I’m having a conversation with you, I will periodically bring up personal experiences from my own life, interspersed withing your own stories that you’re telling me. I’m not doing this to try and make the conversation about me, or to take away from your own experience. Actually, what I’m attempting to do, is to try and show you that I do, in fact, understand what you’re trying to tell me, and that I am giving your story my full attention.

It can really be off-putting to some people, so if I’ve ever done this to you during a conversation, I just wanted to make sure you know that I wasn’t trying to take over your story, I was just doing my best to connect with you in the moment.

The screenshot of Twitter reads:

This. I am fully aware that I do this. And I feel so guilty every time, but this. Understand this.

    • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That, to me, stemmung from my prior experiences, would reduce conversation down to office talk.

      Real conversations aren’t like diatribes in the movies, which are really monotribes cuz of singular authors.

      The monotribes seem to flow so easily from character to character because, in reality, they are all flowing from the same source.

      Real life talking isn’t Person A rants esoteric and emotional and B-unit responds with body language like a fucking NPC. Real talk is two people fleshing out a topic that’s outside themselves, or if it’s a part of themselves, it’s disassociated with to be put under the spotlight. Thru the sharing of experiences with Topic© the 2 parties can assess their knowledge as well as the others knowledge, and glean useful insights, strategies, or get advise that they might not have thought of

      Seriously, this is the only form of conversation that even makes evolutionary biological sense. In a world where, once you leave to comforts of society and remember that, as much as a pain in the ass as other people are, without them, alone in the wild, 99% of us are something’s lunch. We forget that little fact really fast. There is nothing more valuable to a person, to their safety, survival, and sanity as another person is. Idk, otherwise just seems like a pov born out of non-introspective privilege.

      Fucking I’ll nod along and play supporting character if, and only if, there’s a paycheck attached, and that’s it, end of story.

      • octoperson@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I’m afraid however much you might not like it, those rote conversations do serve a purpose. It’s the same purpose that other apes fill by picking each other’s fleas - it establishes who is part of the group, who they consider worthy of their time. There’s probably apes that don’t like grooming and don’t see the point in it, but they’ll still struggle if they don’t engage with it in some way.