Physics!!!! My child and I can talk about anything, politics, religion both of them in depth, cars, construction, relationships, video games, anime, hiking, cooking, nature, you name it. At length. Except physics. When they first started learning, they'd prattle on and on. I'd say, I don't know anything, even the most basic things, so I don't get it. They'd try to explain it. Nope. That was probably a decade ago, and I still say, I don't get it! Not even the most basic concepts. Well, maybe inertia. About it.

I don't talk to anyone any more, but back when I was taking care of Ken, and even in the years that I knew him before that, he used to make a list of things he wanted to tell me the next time I came by. He was a very intelligent, interesting man and he read all the time, and you could consider him an authority on several subjects, but some where hypnotically boring to me....especially investing money....when he got into handling his own investments, for at least a year, that is all he talked about.

Football....details about teams and players from years before, because he no longer watched or followed football.

B52 bombers. He had been a crew chief on one when he was in the air Force.

Guns. He knew the background and history on just about every gun and rifle in existence.

He also knew just about everything there was to know about WW 2 and had read every book in existence on George Custer and the battle of Little Big Horn.

I am sure there are other subjects I have forgotten.

Seeing as I hang with an elderly bunch, MEGO when they start talking about health insurance...

I've recently reconnected with a friend of years ago. Several times she has introduced a topic in this way:

Do you mind if I tell you something? You know, I really trust you. I know you as such an honest and caring person and know that I could share anything with you and it stays with us. (etc. etc.) At first I felt I was about to hear that she had some kinky fetish or that she had been imprisoned for shop lifting. But no, it's always something mundane like -- "I went to the plant store and the woman there said such and such and that reminded me of the time my sister told my mother that I had been eating the icecream they were saving for the...."

I made that up -- but that's the kind of forgettable topic she confides in me.

Clothes shopping. Not for a special occasion like a wedding or something much needed and elusive to find, but the women who view shopping for for basic clothes and accessories as a sport. What have you been up to lately? I bought a new purse, I bought the cutest sandals, I bought the most precious purse. I had such a hard time deciding if the blouse I saw was light turquoise, aqua or aquamarine. What do you think? Gah!

What does MEGO mean? Sorry if I appear dense, but I'm finding a lot of people use initials for phrases and I have no idea what they mean!

nora, my eyes glaze over

Praha, a friend of mine always asked her elderly MIL “ what are doing?” when she called to check up on her instead of “ How are you?”

I thought this was brilliant. It gave a segue into a possible conversation other than health issues. If she was watching TV they could talk about that etc.

Nora, I am guess it is My Eyes Glaze Over.

I've never seen that acronym before. Now I know, If I do!

Technical computer stuff.

My DH talks a lot about his cars - he has 2 track cars and is obsessed with the sport. He keeps tweaking their performance to shave x number of seconds off a lap. I can listen to some of it for awhile but it's not my passion. My brother is really into guns, gun shows and the 2nd amendment - I can't listen to him. Then, friends who only talk about their grandchildren.

And, lest I forget, my husband's sister and her husband have chosen to spend their golden years playing golf. They live in a gated golf community in Florida, right on a golf course. Besides buying groceries, all they do is play golf, watch golf and talk about golf. MEGO lol (I just learned that here).

MEGO...My Eyes Glaze Over?

It drives me crazy when someone starts to relate a current topic of conversation to something that happened 40-50 or more years ago and how it somehow relates. Huh?

And yes, the long details of a person’s physical ailments and BAM, MEGO.

Grandchildren. A little goes a long way. I don’t have them. I have a few relatives and friends who don’t either and feel the same way.

Showing family pictures, lots of them and talking about each one

I've known people who will say something to the effect of, "So, last Tuesday...or was it Wednesday...hmmm, no couldn't have been Wednesday because I went to the dentist that day. Maybe it was Thursday.....". It doesn't freaking matter!!

Grandchildren. I no longer have coffee with a friend because that's the entire conversation - her grandchildren. She has a degree in marine biology and we used to have the most interesting conversations. I miss them.

My husband's family when they got together would start talking about people who used to live in the neighborhood when they were children. All trying to make certain that everyone knew the names and exactly where they lived of the people. You must realize that most of the group were anywhere from 50 to 80 but it was always the same discussion.

My dad has an excuse to be boring: Alzheimer's. He's down to two modes of conversation. First is, he'll remember his boyhood home and elementary school and describe them, same details and same words every time. He will respond to a prompt but not to a probing question. Second, he describes whatever he's looking at. Such as, his watch: the hands (he calls them needles) going round: one ... two... three... all the way to twelve. Then again. And again. Or his "Super Word Search" puzzle book. He reads the title of the puzzle, the list of words to find, then counts "1-2-3 ...14 letters across, 1-2-3...15 letters down". Doesn't/can't actually solve any of the puzzle. But he's happy with an occasional "Wow" and "That's a lot words". I can take about an hour before steering him to a close. And I hereby confess I often surf the net while he's talking ... it's either that, or I'd need a stronger drink than beer!

People who have dogs enjoy conversations about dogs. People who have large families and lots of grandchildren are similarly interested to talk about their own and learn about yours. People who like to travel like to talk about the travel of others.

The key is to have conversation, not a one sided lecture. I wouldn't talk about dogs to someone who dislikes dogs or doesn't have one. Or about my family relationships with someone who doesn't have good and active family relationships like I have.

It's all about relevance, talking about shared interests and mutuality of amount as far as I'm concerned.

I'm one of those people who is friendly to the awkward at parties, probably because I'm a little shy myself. Once, just trying to be nice, I chatted with a pregnant woman who was pretty boring. I was single at the time, and she kept bringing up how she could never live by herself, how terrible it must be, how scary it would be if something happened, etc. About a week later, she woke me at close to midnight "just to chat" and said she called me because all of her friends were married and she "didn't want to wake their husbands." I barely knew her; didn't even know how she got my number. She prattled on about her pregnancy for about ten minutes before pausing for air. That's when I jumped in and told her that if I were her, I'd be too worried to sleep, that I'd be nervous about being pregnant because of all the possible birth defects, and then started describing them. She suddenly had to hang up, and I never heard from her again.

@robbb333 - funny you should mention physics. When my kids were choosing their sciences in grade 11 and I told them if you ever need help in any of your sciences I can help with biology and basic chem. Choose physics and you're on your own. One chose physics and would come home and tell me all about it and MEGO (new term for me - love it!)

I think boring is when the other person talks about things they should know darn well I couldn't possibly care less about but talk about it anyway because they feel a need to talk about it and know I'm too polite to tell them that I don't give a sh*t about that cr*p.

Real Estate, get rich schemes, economics, the stock market, strength of concrete, the joy of watching paint dry, etc.

I'm sure they find me equally boring but must be desperate.

I may be in the opposite side of most of you.

When I get into a conversation with someone, I always go in realizing that if they are prattling in about something, it’s something they are either very interested in or something they are very worried about.

I figure if I am a good friend, or at least a good person, I can do my best to enjoy the knowledge or excitement that they are trying to share with me. They are not trying to share in order to bore me, they are trying to share their joy with me...and that in itself makes them a good person.

Of course, if it’s the other reason, that they are sharing something they are worried about, I try to step up and again be a good friend, a good person, and let them unload their worries. My natural instinct is to try and problem solve, to fix their worries. However, I have found that most times, people just need to vent their worries, lay them out on the table. They don’t need me to solve their problem. They just need a friend to open up to.

I agree with Elmer. Any good conversation - heck, any good friendship! - requires give and take.

I have a few good friends. We're talking people I would walk through fire for.

The reason they are good friends is that when we get together, we each take turns talking. They tell me what's going on or important to them, then I get to talk about the same from my perspective. We ask each other questions and we care about the answers. I will listen to anything any of those beloved people want to share with me, because I know they feel the same way about me.

It's the people I call "machine gun chatters" who bore me to tears. I've known a few people through the years who don't care what you have to say - they just seem to view you as a captive audience for them to fill up the airwaves with any/every thought that pops into their tiny head. It feels like rapid-fire verbal assault to me. (Yes, that's somewhat melodramatic - but I think it makes my perspective clear!)

It gives me a headache and bores me to tears. If you don't care enough to even let me have a word in edgewise....we will not be spending much time together.

Health woes and diet talk. I'm happy that my book club can't meet now. 😉

a convo about watching paint dry ...

They don’t need me to solve their problem. They just need a friend to open up to.

I don't mind being a shoulder to cry on sometimes, if it is a crisis. Even a stranger, in the appropriate circumstances, will get my time and empathy.

However, and I hope this does not sound uncaring, I do not any longer, having learned from experience, offer my ear or shoulder to those whose entire life is a drama, and who seem to go from one crisis to the other and who really don't seem to be happy unless they are complaining and wailing at great length about their woes..

I have one friend (with I seldom have conversations any more) who talks endlessly about herself and her ailments, and she does not let anyone else get a word in edgewise. I'm okay with her talking about it to an extent, but when it is to the exclusion of everything else, then that is too much and where I draw the line.

Of course people are going to talk about themselves - that is what they know best, but they should be prepared to listen as much as they talk.

I had a lot friends at university who were math major or were majoring in computer science, and when they got together in groups and had conversations about abstract mathematics, I would get lost. I never got further than theoretic calculus, and so discussions about topology and string theory were somewhat beyond what I could discuss coherently with them. I did start out majoring in physics, however.

Negativity. I have little patience for a constant, never ending stream of negativity regardless of the subject matter.

One of my dearest friends has a tendency to go on and on about her life happenings. I might comment 3 or 4 words in an hour long conversation but I listen and smile. Her rambllings are usually entertaining and though they lack substance, they are endearing as it is a reflection of her high energy and passion.

Exclusively themselves.

I don't do a lot of conversing. I chat sometimes, but when someone goes off the deep end, I just sit silently and let em talk. One of my sisters can turn any, and I do mean ANY subject political or religious. She is an extremist regarding both. I do not care to discuss either with anyone.

I meet a lot of people from all over the country, truck drivers. They like to talk. That's fine, I imagine an over the road trucker is lonely. BUT I struggle to feign interest in their stories when they include people that I do not know but they talk as if I do. "Oh Joleen and Earl got into it again and Pearl had to call Pete to come calm everyone down." Fascinating.

Two of my coworkers are almost painful to talk to.

One, the other night minion, calls me when I am walking on the nights I am working to talk. He tells me the same stories from 30 years ago over and over and over. He loves to prattle on about how things used to be at work, and moan about how there are "too many engineers and HR people." Then he starts the speech about how he's a veteran, and in his 70s, so he's a protected citizen and if they EVER try to "run him off" because of his age he will sue. Then he talks about the 2 day girls, all their faults and the perceives slights he's endured at their hands. Yada Yada Yada. He is frustrating to try to converse with because he is a bundle of contradictions. He was JUST complaining about his sons family coming to stay at his house for Thanksgiving, and how he will have to share a room with (horrors) his own wife to make room for them. He is also terrified that they will bring in the virus and so on and so on....Next night he calls complaining because his son and his family decided NOT to visit for safety reasons. He was SO looking forward to them coming.....WHICH IS IT?!?!?!? I just let him talk for the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes I am walking when I could be listening to Christmas music or some video that interests me on YouTube because I think he is lonely and maybe his family doesn't really want to let him go on and on and on...........

The other coworker is an expert on EVERYTHING: Health and dieting (all 300 pounds of her) marriage (with her 2 years experience), pet care and training (her dog has been banned from 2 doggie day cares) child rearing (she has none) personal finance (with her outrageous student loan debt) etc. If we are working together (a blessedly rare event) and someone asks me a question, she will yell out the answer. Even if it is about ME or something to do with me. And even if she is incorrect. Like the other day:

Driver: Amy where did you get that Peanuts thing in your garden? I want to get one. My Granddaughter LOVES Linus!

Her: Amazon!

Me: No, I got it on Etsy.

Her: Well you could probably get it on Amazon too.

Me: No, this is a handmade item that's only on etsy. There are several sellers that make them, but its on Etsy, not amazon

Her: Well, you can get an inflatable on amazon of Snoopy, and that's the same thing

Me: Blank Stare......the one I have is not snoopy, and its not inflatable. Its Linus and Charlie Brown. and they are wooden.

Her: Its the same cartoon!

Me: Okay then. Well I got those on etsy. So if he wants THOSE wooden yard decorations of Linus and Charlie Brown, and NOT a Snoopy inflatable, then he's gonna have to go to Etsy to get em....

Driver: (slowly backs out the door)

His wife called me later that week when I was back on my beloved nights ALONE to discuss them. I sent her the link. He probably should have just done that to start with.

Or sometimes people will ask about my candles that I make and sell. She will answer, sometimes wrongly, and pout when corrected. I find those types of people difficult to talk with. Deep breaths, Amy, deep breaths. And smile, it makes her nervous.....

All in all, while I do not engage in any social media, I find interactions online like this forum and others to be preferable to real life conversation. I can engage when I want, ignore when I want, and everyone else can do the same regarding me.

I am also ashamed to admit that I do not really enjoy long conversations with my mom, much as I love her. No matter how it begins, she always, ALWAYS wants to talk about people I went to elementary and high school with. "Do you remember her? She fell and broke her arm that one time in 1st grade? Have you talked to her? Is she married?" Or if she is up to date on them, as I am not, she will have to let me know. "Oh, Luke, you remember Luke, he goes to our church. He does this and that. He's married and has 3 boys."

Sigh. Yes mom, I remember them ALL. I went to school with them for 13 years! It was only like 30 of us so yes I remember! And no, I do not keep in touch or up to date with any of them. No reason, they were all lovely, but no. You KNOW this mom! Then her and my dad will just reminisce about all of them and events that happened and this and that regarding my or my siblings school years. And ill just sit there, wondering if they have any good snacks in the kitchen to take the edge off......

Movie stars ....I have no idea who they are nor do I care who they are married to.

Wine....I do not drink it and therefore do not care what it should be served with.

And ill just sit there, wondering if they have any good snacks in the kitchen to take the edge off......

Like...some “special” brownies?

People's dreams. I just don't care.

Sports. Guns. Words from people who talk of nothing but themselves.

I love hearing people's dreams.

I don't care about sports or guns, however, unless someone is telling me about how a gun has been pointed at them, and then I become very interested.

I have a friend who just goes on tangents. She'll talk about going back to our hometown and discusses the route she took and do I remember this or that? I didn't meet this woman till we were in college because she lived in a small village a few miles from my town. What floored me the other day was an email saying she went back to this hometown and passed where I went to kindergarten. I told my other college friend that I have no clue where I went to kindergarten and not one memory of that year so how the heck does she know. It's exhausting talking to her and I do it as little as possible but her husband died in the spring and I kinda feel obligated.

So, last Tuesday...or was it Wednesday...hmmm, no couldn't have been Wednesday because I went to the dentist that day. Maybe it was Thursday.....". It doesn't freaking matter!!

My former boss was like this. We would get into the car headed for our first stop, and she would start chatting about what she had done the evening before. It was never anything interesting but she gave it in explicit detail. "We went to Home Depot at about 7:45. No, I guess it was closer to 7:30 because we saw the tail end of Jeopardy before we left. And the washing machine had finished, and that takes 35 minutes and I put that on about 6:55..." Usually she lost the train of thought before she remembered all the excruciating details.

Oh, and another former acquaintance. You didn't talk with Sylvia. You listened to Sylvia. It was a total stream-of-consciousness, with no beginning or end. She never finished a thought because she veered off into something else.

I have a friend who I love dearly but she tells long-winded stories about other relatives that I have never met and will never meet. She has such a good heart that I just listen and sometimes I can interject a question and move us on to a new topic.

Cross-posted, but seems to fit here.

I'm reminded of the story my Mom told me about my Grandfather. He was hard of hearing and wore hearing aids. At a family gathering, he was sitting with my Grandmother's sisters who both had voices like foghorns and who both suffered with verbal diarrhea. She noticed her Dad sitting there, and then she saw him reach up, turn off his hearing aids, and get a wide smile on his face!

The problem for me is when people talk AT me about something. If there is no back and forth conversation, I, the listener, get bored. It can be any topic.

Clearly from this thread alone monologues are a recurring cause of boredom. With again the long winded delivery being more of a problem than the inherent nature of the content. Content that would not have the same effect if presented in small doses.

I find in discussions with people I know that not only do I start to lose interest if they try to talk about something for more than a short time but it goes both ways. So that I am frequently and repeatedly interrupted if I don't complete each thought very quickly. Anecdotes in particular seem to have little place in contemporary verbal conversation, if my experiences are any indication.

Of course anybody that is living a busy life will be in the habit of not putting too much time into something that is not on their list of personal priorities. And may just be too tired at the moment to maintain interest in what is being said. As was the case recently when one of my long time friends dosed off a couple times during a phone chat with me. One where I was not droning on.

My friend seems to be a friend to some of you as well....lol

I have one friend who comes from a very large family in another part of the country, She will start talking about something/someone and then pretty soon she's talking about that person's cousin's mother-in-law's next door neighbor. Omigod, it drives me insane, as I barely had any interest in hearing about the original person she started with. A couple of times I've said to her, "I don't want to talk about them, I don't even know them. Tell me about...." and will change the subject.

I don't think I'll ever call or talk to anyone again after this thread.

Could some of you make a suggestion to the talkative friend that conversation between friends should be a two-way street?

ole joyful

From my experience, those talkative people would tune anyone out who suggested conversation between friends should be a two-way street. They are so self-absorbed they either don't hear or don't care and go right on talking, talking, talking.

What was that?

Sorry, I was thinking about something else. Something I wanted to say - as soon as you quit talking.

Because what I want to say is what is important to me.