I suck at talking to people

Alcohol fixes this problem.

There's really not much advice anyone can offer here... the best thing to do is to just have confidence and practice.

I'm not very good at talking to people myself, but I manage okay by pretty much being the first one to smile and laugh. So long as you break the tension by putting your guard down first, everything is usually okay.

A conversation takes two people. If the other person isn't helping the situation any, that pretty much just means you guys didn't click. There's honestly nothing you can do about that.

But yeah, practice talking to people and you'll get better at it.

Did I mention alcohol?

Oh. One more thing: avoid staring people DIRECTLY in the eye 100% of the time. That's annoying and uncomfortable. You're not interviewing them, you're holding a conversation.

Oh, and alcohol.

Finding the dumbest things to talk about can be key as well. Talk about the situation you're in with that person. Comment about something they're wearing that stood out to you. Make a comment about something you can both see right away. If you involve them usually they're more... well... involved. :/

alcohol.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Matt's right.

If you want to learn how to be social AVOID "practicing" on the internet. That's ridiculous. You could have the words of cassanova but that doesn't mean shit if you're sitting there twirling your thumbs while staring at your feet the entire time.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Smelnick

Alcohol definitely helps you meet new people. But your still gonna feel uncomfortable because you know that they don't know the real you.

How you act is how you are. The alcohol does nothing but make you more bold and less reserved. It's not as if you take a drink and an ethereal being takes over your body controlling your every thought and emotion.

You'll always be you, it's just a matter of how much you're going to be you. You can acheive the same results without alcohol, but that's on you. The quickest and easiest way to open up and be social is to drink. Hands down.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

I'm a very good public speaker, but like you neus I can't stand idle chit chat. Generally, I solve this by compulsively lying. No joke. I make a bit of a game out of chit chat by starting with a relatively small lie and just building it up and building it up until either you know for sure the person you're talking to is a complete idiot for not cluing in or the other person picks up on it and you both have a laugh. It works wonders as an icebreaker, as long as you figure out the right balance of realism and absurdity to make a joke out of it. I picked this up from a dramatic improvisation class I took.

That's a good idea.

It must be tricky to balance though. If someone where pulling this on me, I'd pretend to believe them the entire time and then walk away before the conversation was done.

I'm going to give this one a shot, though.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

A conversation takes two people, genius. How else could you communicate?

If you were the one doing all the talking then you'd be talking to them, not holding a conversation.

Get it?

I was speaking idiomatically.

RainMan, I recommend you edit your post and add more there's seems to be a shortage and takes away some umphf, do you understand?

Also Reznor, I would highly suggest backing down. RainMan is both silent and deadly.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?