What makes someone dull / boring in your opinion?

[Teadrinker11]

What do you think makes someone fairly dull / insipid? What would make someone have no personality in your opinion? What would distinguish someone who is boring from someone who is fairly memorable and would make an impression on you?

@EishetChayil

Self-involved people who talk only of themselves.

This ^

The people who close down conversations with comments like "I hate reading", "I hate the cinema", "I hate Indian food" when others are having an enjoyable chat about that very thing.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

I honestly think some people have a spark and some don't. If someone has a spark then even if they talk about themselves or model trains etc people will listen with interest. If someone lacks that spark then even if they are talking about an interesting subject, their words fall flat and people lose interest.

I suppose confidence is part of it, but definitely not all of it (I know some very confident bores).

100%. I love people like that, who can make anything interesting.

For me, I can't stand people who drone endlessly about holidays or their family or friends that I haven't met. So boring, I don't even know how to respond at the end if I can stay awake.

People who only talk about themselves, self-centred people. People who seem to be offended by conversation - what 100problems said about shutting down conversations by announcing their lack of interest.
The sparkiest people I know are people who engage with you, ask a couple of questions, tell you something that they've done and are pleasant

Having no opinions , anything interesting to say !

People who are over competitive.

Several traits.

No sense of humour, talks about themselves constantly.bragging and boasting about money. Not interested in listening to anyone else. Strident, opinionated views, no tolerance for anyone else’s views.

People who never complain about anything, or who avoid agreeing when someone else is complaining.

E.g. the teen neighbour many doors down keeps stealing everybody's parcels if they're left on doorsteps, and my next door neighbour said to me "I don't really mind if he steals my parcels. I just order replacements from amazon".

Essentially, people who are afraid to have an opinion on anything because they're afraid anything has the potential to be controversial

Someone who never has a deep discussion, or conversely someone who only talks about serious things. Also - people who have set views on things and refuse to engage with other views. This can apply to a lot of things, including politics.

No opinions, no passions/interests. People who are very inflexible and lack curiosity, people who are obsessed about their appearances and are only interested in clothes, make-up and showing off in general.

I find people who mostly spend their lives watching TV or going to the pub to get drunk really boring.

On social media - people who post about the same topics or the same type of photos all the time. (For example, I know someone who posts pictures of their pets and very little else).

1-uppers. Whatever you do/have/experience, they have to go 1 better. The parents of one of DS’s school friends are like this, especially the Dad. He can’t ever just do a sport, he has to be ‘elite’ level. Even for fucking frisbee! Always going on about how big their house is what they’ve bought.

I give them a wide berth now as it’s so dull and tedious to listen to.

Overly opinionated people who dominate conversations and then mistake introverted and reflective people as the boring ones.

People that are only interested in talking about whats in the news

People that talk but don't listen

People that talk and pretend to listen

People that talk and when you try and reply they cut you off and start talking over you

People that only laugh at their own jokes

Lack of sense of humour

Stubborness/extremely opinionated

People who go into a very great deal of detail reporting very ordinary everyday events, repeating entire mundane conversations word for word.
People who continue to talk about their pet subject, whatever it is, after it becomes clear that the person they’re talking to has nothing to say about it.

People who only talk about themselves and immediately turn anything you say to something similar they might have experienced. My FIL is dreadful for doing this… I end up saying nothing and can’t wait till he leaves.

People who literally only talk about their children.
Every topic is about their children

People who go into full detail about the dream they had last night

2 different types of dull to me - introverted dull and extroverted dull.

Extroverted dulls are the kind of people whose world view is both narrow and centred on themselves. They are good talkers and can even come across as not dull at first, but if you have to interact with them a lot it quickly becomes clear they only care and therefore talk mostly about themselves and things that effect them only. I know about 4 people like this and they are all WAY above average talkers to add insult to injury.

Introverted dull people are the people you would more stereotypically describe as dull - unopinionated, unengaged, appear to have little interests.

I don't consider dullness a defining quality btw. I'm painfully shy in real life and I am also quite guarded, but with people I know well I love to hear about them and show genuine interest I what they want to talk about, I have lots of interests and I think about others lot.

BIL is dull and boring. He has no curiosity about life or anything. Never goes anywhere or does anything. Doesn't follow the news, has no hobbies, isn't interested in anything really. Spends his days watching telly.

It's really hard to try to have a conversation with him because he has literally nothing to talk about. His name's not Dave but that's what we call him because he's like Dave in the Royle family. "All right Barbara" is about the depth of his conversational ability.

Closed mind, not open to changing perspective, no interests, negative mind set, zero resposibility re self care and mental health.

Over talking, not turn taking, not listening and not curious.

No sense of humour.

@JohnMcCainsDeathStare

Someone who will respond to attempts at conversation with closed answers such that there is nothing to lead on to.

Lack of curiousity in anything external to them.

A negative attitude that shuts down conversation attempts.

Three word answers.

'I don't mind'

'Anything really'

Listing of things they hate and don't like but not discussing anything they like.

No passion or interests.

Reminds me of why i cannot watch soaps. The characters don't go out, don't talk about current events, never talk about ideas, have no interests not even the most mainstream ones, don't listen to music - nothing like actual people.

This ^

and people like @RavenclawDiadem's BiL.

I can't understand people who never go anywhere / do anything / don't have any hobbies, interests, passions, or even curiosity to take an interest in current affairs or sport or ANYTHING you could talk about with them, and think you might actually be interested in a 20minute description of the broken down details of how the bus was late on the way to work that morning

That's another thing - events only in terms of things happening to them or talking about people whether it is directly or indirectly but with no other context.
Also it is always things happening to them never anything that could be the consequence of any sort of (in)action they have done.