The Worst Conversation Habits You Need To Stop
As social people, we love talking and hanging out with others. Conversations are a way of life, and like any aspect of living, there are certain ways you don’t want to go about having conversations. If you have bad habits during conversations, nobody would like talking to you (which is a harsh truth). That being said, here are the worst conversation habits you need to stop!
Interrupting
This is the single most gut wrenching thing you can do during a conversation. When it’s time for someone other than you to speak, you listen. People often don’t realize just how much they interrupt during conversations, and the more you do it, the more you make the blood of others in the conversation boil.
There are a few instances where you may interrupt someone (for example if they explicitly say so), but doing it without consideration of the other people in the conversation is not only annoying, but borderline obnoxious.
Talking Over People
This is a step above just interrupting others, and it’s in fact, worse. Talking over people is one of the absolute worst conversation habits anyone can have. It’s usually done when you’re trying to outshout someone to get your point across (or when in disagreement with them), and it is completely ineffective.
It’s not only rude to talk over people, but you’re basically saying you could not care less about what they have to say, and you’re in the right.
Bragging For No Reason
There’s nothing wrong with bragging during a conversation, as there are times when you want to celebrate, or people ask about your lifestyle etc. However, bragging in such a way that portrays yourself as better than the others in the conversation just makes you impossible to actually talk to.
An example would be if you’re in a conversation with two other people, and they’re talking about how excited they are to travel somewhere as they don’t travel a lot. You diminishing their excitement by saying how you travel all the time and their lives must suck since they haven’t traveled (this happens very often) makes you quite a jerk.
Taking Over The Entire Conversation
A conversation is meant to be a chat between a group of people, not a speech you’re giving and everyone else just waits and listens. Anyone who rambles for the entirety of a conversation will make people dislike them very quickly, and interest in the conversation will be lost fast.
There’s nothing wrong if you’re telling a story during a conversation, but it’s still not a Ted Talk. Communication is two way, and you need to understand that if you want people to want to talk to you more.
Another example is if you manage to relate every aspect of a conversation back to yourself (even if you weren’t involved in the story being told). Sometimes you just have to listen, and not always make everything about yourself.
Attacking Someone You Disagree With Personally
These are known as an ad hominem. It is such an annoying and demeaning approach to attack someone’s character in a conversation (their lifestyle, activities, etc), just because you disagree with their argument (instead of discussing their actual point) and try to prove your stance on a topic as the right one.
If you do this, you’ll be known as that person who can’t make an actual argument and resorts to petty insults, and nobody will want to have any conversation with you.
Using Your Phone
Using your phone during a conversation is extremely rude. It not only shows you’re bored of the conversation, but absolute disinterest in the what others are saying as long as you’re not talking. This becomes much worse if it’s a one on one conversation and someone is pouring out their heart to you. It comes across as their feelings not being worthy of your attention, and they would not want to tell you personal things anymore.
If you’re going to be using your phone, you might as well leave the place, as it just makes things awkward for everyone in the conversation.
