Ask Lemmy

Yes. Goodbye

I remember seeing an amazingly visualised website that was showing a result of an experiment that made people talk with strangers, and it had mostly positive result for most participants, even if they felt uncomfortable or scared at the beginning, and it had gopd results even if people with differenting opinions about i.e politics talked. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it again.

I don't know if it was part of the same research, but there was also a part where they had people talk to strangers on a bus ride, and it also went well in most cases.

Sp, talking to strangers is mostly recommended and should be mostly positive, at least statiatically speaking.

Talking to a random stranger in an environment where random talk is possible yes. (Bus, waiting room, concert, bar, basically anywhere public).
Going to stranger's s table at a restaurant (not fast food, or shoulder to shoulder) nope.

Not with the intent to strike up a conversation, but rather to be helpful. Like I might take the initiative to help offer directions or translation, etc. Or I might notice someone hmming and hawing and say, “Get the steak. The quality here is excellent😉.” But it’s not like I’m expecting a conversation lol. Honestly I can do friendly conversations, but I find them a bit like work😅

I'm a dude though, the circumstances aren't the same, lol.

But I have, actually, many times. Especially in uni and highschool, I'd be the one to approach the quiet kid cause I just wasn't comfortable with them feeling excluded. I made a really good friend in uni that way, a quiet, very clever and responsible ginger dude (in a country of brown people, he was basically a mythological being, lol) I ended up spending many of my afternoons with, just yapping and toking our late teens away. 🙏

I can and I do, often when I find people speaking Spanish! (I'm in Australia, I speak a bit of Spanish, and it's uncommon in Australia)

In my experience, Asian people are sometimes surprised that non-Asains know certain things about their culture, and are happy to share parts of their culture with someone new.

I wouldn’t but I think it depends on the culture. In Morocco people would just start chatting to people in the car next to them while they were waiting at traffic lights. They would just chat to everyone.

This is very common in Belfast. More strangers struck up a convo with me there than in all my years in north Germany.

There are a lot of cultures where seating in public is ad hoc, you just sit wherever, you generally don't claim a table or area to yourself. In those situations greetings and socialization are pretty normal.

I remember going out to eat fast food with a girl and her kid a decade ago and some homeless guy asked if he could sit with us. I said sure, and he was a nice maybe 50 year old guy. He had clearly been around kids and enjoyed to normalcy of just hanging out with the three of us for 30min. The kid didn't mind, but the girl I was dating though it really weird.

I think if I did that in my country I'd be carted off to a mental asylum for doing something insane

That’s how you make new friends!

I remember some years ago I was traveling in a city that I didn’t know and I heard two people in front of me talking passionately about Game of Thrones. We happened to be on the same path, so I just heard the conversation for a bit before I decided to join or not.

They sounded like good friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. They’d jump back and forth from GoT to very basic questions like “Hey, speaking of brothers, is your brother still dating her?”

Who would wanna spoil that beautiful moment by interrupting it? Moi ✌️😎 Why? I was alone in the city, they seemed cool, and I’d leave them alone if it felt awkward.

It turned out to be alright, because I had GoT fresh in my mind and because my very basic questions about them were also a way for them to catch up.

We walked and talked for hours, before I decided I’d leave them to do their thing.

When I look back to that memory, I’m glad I decided to join them.

Im in Australia and it really only happens if a bogan wants something from you. Im also an introvert so i could never walk up to someone and strike up a conversation, but your story makes me wonder if maybe it isnt such a 'weird thing'

At the shooting range I've talked to half a dozen different people last year that I've never seen before. Never hung around after work though, probably because they have more than my preferred amount of penises for dates.