Dead Air

I hate dead air and I try to avoid it as much as possible. I hate that feeling of awkwardness that comes when two or more people who know little or nothing at all about each other are placed in the same room and there's this sort of frosty, cold feeling in the atmosphere that no one can seem to transcend.

Lately I've been trying to make conversation with people I barely know to keep the dead air away. And somehow I can't stop kicking myself for not trying hard enough to establish a better connection between myself and everyone else who is not in my circle of close friends. The conversations are often very one-sided; I ask the questions, the other person answers. I honestly can't think of the last time I had an intelligent, two-sided conversation with someone I wasn't very close with. If it's not a flat one-on-one, well, the air dies a pretty quick death.

It's an old trick, at least in my book, and recently it's disintegrated from a display of confidence and willingness to interact into a pathetic attempt to strike a conversation. Again, by my book.

And again, I hate dead air; it's a part of my very long list of pet peeves. I actually went through a phase in my life when I would avoid other people and hide when I was sure nothing good would come out of our conversation. I've gradually gotten over that.

But I'm having a tougher time with this.