At the minute I seem to be coming accross a lot of people that seem to have trouble stringing a sentence together.

They dont seem to have anything of value to add to a conversation, they just grunt and swear a lot.

Is it just me, or is this a growing trend?

Maybe it's just the people you've been spending time around?

Join a club! Get out some more... isn't there a SheffieldForum event planned sometime soon?

Or you could direct your friends discretely to check out this article :D

The Art of Conversation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/confidence/exercise_conversation.shtml)

It must be due to the fact that most kids are brought up by their Playstations instead of their parents.

Originally posted by jackthedog
It must be due to the fact that most kids are brought up by their Playstations instead of their parents.

How very true - or told to 'go and play' Or an even better one 'shut up' what about parents playing with them, and whats the point in teaching a child to speak to then spend the next few year telling them to 'shut up' ????
Kids learn through play, and if they are stuck in front of a DVD or a Playstation then they will probably grow up useless and as Jack said - unable to string a sentence together !!!

Classic line heard on kids TV...

"My mum and dad taught me to walk and they taught me to talk... and ever since they've been telling me to sit down and shut up!" :D

I have witnessed two people sitting side by side at the bar sending each other text messages!!!! WHY????

I completely agree that the art of conversation is lost. However I would like to add that I regard myself as a conversationalist and I had computers, consoles and books coming out of my ears as a child; So it doesn't always follow.

The problem is that TV/video games/whatever have become the purpose of the evening, instead of just providing entertainment. I hate going to visit someone and ending up just playing games or watching TV. I could've done that at home...

Well put. When you go to see friends, you want to talk and enjoy the company of others. Not just sit in complete silence, watching the same thing as you would've done at home. What's the point?

Originally posted by Agent Dan
I completely agree that the art of conversation is lost. However I would like to add that I regard myself as a conversationalist and I had computers, consoles and books coming out of my ears as a child; So it doesn't always follow.

The problem is that TV/video games/whatever have become the purpose of the evening, instead of just providing entertainment. I hate going to visit someone and ending up just playing games or watching TV. I could've done that at home...

Same here! When I meet my friends I don't want to spend a few hours in the cinema then go home or just stare infront of the TV, I like a good conversation, and when I was younger I had a console etc, but we all enjoyed a game of football or some sort of sport then just chat after over a coffee, the best days of my life (sigh).

Lets not be all romantic about the past. There has always been something that is 'destroying the youth of today'. Once it was punk and before that rock and roll and before that.....well you get me point. In fact everyone always thinks things were better back in the day. Besides if you have ever try to listen to a converstaion between two teenagers you will end up wishing that they would shout up and text each other instead; its kinder to society.

I blame TV characters that speak in baby tongue, like the Teletubbies...

Originally posted by jackthedog
At the minute I seem to be coming accross a lot of people that seem to have trouble stringing a sentence together.

They dont seem to have anything of value to add to a conversation, they just grunt and swear a lot.

Is it just me, or is this a growing trend?

If someone phones me from an office and it is usually a young girl they speak so fast I rarely can tell what they are saying, one word runs into another and I have to keep saying will you repeat that please, coupled with the fact that my hearing is not so good.

Originally posted by Agent Dan
I hate going to visit someone and ending up just playing games or watching TV. I could've done that at home...
Whoops! :wink:
*coughs* LoTR risk...Kung Fu Chaos.... :wink:

I atempt to be a conversationalist but being as I tend to just ramble on about allsorts (not the liquorice kind :D ) with little thought process going on...just let me waffle away into silence and then pat me on the head...after all I'll only embarrass myself! :wink:
xxx

When, you live and work at home pretty much 24/7... you find yourself in dire need of conversation to pick you up...

... just to explain why I sit there with a big grin on my face and can't shut up at meets :loopy:

:thumbsup:

I like a good chat, but alas its not something everyone has time for now :(

they are always rolling sixes or checking for traps instead

Originally posted by Mosherchik
Whoops! :wink:
*coughs* LoTR risk...Kung Fu Chaos.... :wink:


It's different if you ring people and say "do you want to have an excessively long game of LotR Risk?" :P

Originally posted by jackthedog
At the minute I seem to be coming accross a lot of people that seem to have trouble stringing a sentence together.
Sentences - over rated. :o

The art of good converstation, rather like tank-tops and
leg-warmers, is currently out of fashion.

Of course, it will return one day, so don't worry too much about it.

In the meantime enjoy this latest craze of meaningless, monotone, succint interestinglessness.

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
The art of good converstation, rather like tank-tops

A friend of mine wore a tank top the other day and she aint out of fashion lol :lol:

Conversation is out there, you just need to seek it ;)

I disagree that you have to seek converstation.

You have to create it by saying things that provoke other people to comment.

Originally posted by Agent Dan
It's different if you ring people and say "do you want to have an excessively long game of LotR Risk?" :P
*Bows humbly* :wink:
My sincerest apologies sir. Thou mayest slap my wrists :wink:
I will brush up on said art of conversation and drink oodles of coffee in order to stay awake :P :D :wink:

does anyone who goes to college/school/uni notice that when people walk into a class room/lecture hall people never sit next to people they dont know unless they have to - for instance if there are some seats free on a row but there is a spare row behind one will always go on the spare row. I always find this very antisocial.

Yeah I got that today! I dont know anyone in my TV Drama lecture and there was a free seat on either side of me which were there purely to pile bags on!
Maybe I just smell!
Having said that yesterday I made friends with some blokes in my Writing for film class straight away!
the thing about uni is, people tend to make friends with whoever they stayed in halls with then dont socialise with anyone else!!!

Originally posted by Mosherchik
Yeah I got that today! I dont know anyone in my TV Drama lecture and there was a free seat on either side of me which were there purely to pile bags on!
Maybe I just smell!
Having said that yesterday I made friends with some blokes in my Writing for film class straight away!
the thing about uni is, people tend to make friends with whoever they stayed in halls with then dont socialise with anyone else!!!

In chemistry there is sommat called the Pauli Exclusion Principle - its a bit like people filling a train. They sit individually unless all the seats have one person on them already or they are of opposite sex / fancy the other [like electrons with opposite spins] - I loved how my inorganice chem lecturere described stuff on our degree course :P
http://www.iupac.org/reports/1999/7110minkin/p.html#pauli_exclusion

Originally posted by kittykat
does anyone who goes to college/school/uni notice that when people walk into a class room/lecture hall people never sit next to people they dont know unless they have to - for instance if there are some seats free on a row but there is a spare row behind one will always go on the spare row. I always find this very antisocial.

That's just inbred into you. Nature. Normal - it's your personal space. You carry it around with with you all the time wherever you go - like an invisible bubble enclosed around you.

I'm doing a psychology course and it is one of the subjects covered.

Fascinating stuff.

Don't even try to sit next to me!! Argh!!