[randcraw]

Actually, not only do I agree with your main point, but I think I know why it's a problem. (BTW, it's a problem for me too.) Most people today have the attention span of gnats. They crave talk in small, light, humor-based doses, like TV sitcom dialogue.

(And yes, I don't understand what most people want to hear either. Mostly I think they want others to compliment them, ask them to expound on themselves, and laugh at inane jokes.)

Your long-ish post implies that you prefer discourse (the antithesis of small talk). I suspect you'd like to pose an idea and then exchange ideas on it. While that was popular before the age of TV (much less internet), conversation on topics that resonate and last for 5+ minutes is unusual today, especially verbally, and it's likely that few strangers respond well to it. People like to tell / hear stories about other people, not discuss ideas.

Like you (I suspect) I suffer small talk badly, though in recent years I've learned to cut back on delivering 'large talk'... hopefully before peoples' eyes glaze over.

[cdubzzz]

So much this. I am genuinely concerned about the direction of discourse and society in general with the way mass communication on the Internet has played out. Just look at how the damn president of the US communicates in tweets - short, authoritative and usually inflammatory. After that, all other conversation is drowned out by Twitter rolling responses in to another view.

The build up of these echo chambers and extremely brief communication patterns contributes greatly to polarizing people on all kinds of different issues. It's really terrifying to me.

[ksk]

What made you believe that this so called 'large talk' was popular before TV? I feel people were simply more wordy before, not necessarily more expansive in terms of exchanging ideas.

[dpark]

I'm not even sure people were more wordy. TV has been widespread for three generations now. When people under the age of 80 talk about the time before TV, they're mostly revealing their imaginations and not any historical information.

[AlwaysRock]

This. I prefer discourse but most people just want to have light conversations so I have a slew of stories I can tell that are entertaining.