*After a ten-second pause in the conversation*
“Man, I sure am loving this Fall weather”
Talking about the weather seems to be the universal sign for “I don’t have anything else I can think to ask you about right now, so the weather is where I go.”
Why though? What makes weather such an easy fallback no matter who you’re talking to? It just clicked for me today, though it’s probably something obvious to most people. It’s that weather is a very universal thing to talk about. There isn’t one person alive who hasn’t experienced weather, so it’s a good conversation topic. You have something in common. Even if you live in completely different climates, you still can relate in that you both have weather…of some kind. In fact, when the weather is different, it gives you an opportunity to talk about what life is like in a different setting.
Similarly, some people were annoyed when all anyone could talk about 3 months ago was COVID. Why was that? Because it was affecting everyone’s life. It was an easy fallback because everyone has something to contribute to the conversation.
If this is the case, it seems like this is a good strategy to use as we talk to people and get to know them. Try and find the things in common that you know they’ll have something to contribute on. Even if it’s not something you absolutely love talking about, if you know they’re going to have something to say on something, ask about it and you never know where the conversation could go from there.