To think that social standing affects the desire to associate with strangers?

[LazyJack]

I am in a very popular tourist and sailing destination. I’ve been sitting enjoying a glass of wine in the harbour and listening to a conversation unfolding on a bench on the quayside. The participants did not stop talking at eachother for around an hour and had never met prior to them sharing a bench overlooking the harbour. It led me to wondering whether your upbringing/‘class’ makes you more or less inclined to find common ground with strangers.

I am middle class, and am disinterested in any opinions on this - I can’t help my upbringing or my life. It is what it is. I will not enter into protracted conversation with strangers - I’ll exchange pleasantries and carry on with my day. I’m not interested in whether they thought their pudding in the pub down the road was overpriced or which day is bin day in Sutton Coldfield. Yet these strangers managed to prattle on for a full hour about completely inconsequential dross - they were incredibly loud so it was difficult to ignore, and they were quite close.

So; if you’re working class, do you try harder to find common ground with people? Do you try hard to be friendly? Why?

The most garrulous bores I’ve ever had inflicted on me were middle class middle aged men, who loved the sound of their own voices a bit too much. Sutton Coldfield bin day would have been a blessed relief in comparison with “a long reminiscence with no apparent point, about former colleagues you’ll never meet”.

Is this not about region more than class?

Oh God yes. Middle aged MC men - or pompous arses as I call them. Insufferable.

OP is definitely in Salcombe and annoyed that Brummies are allowed in.

100%.

No Matt, I don't give a fuck why you think Brexit is ghastly or what your loft conversion plans are.

I'd say it has everything to do with personality and little to do with class.

I'm working class and avoid socialising as much as possible.

My dad is working class and can talk to anyone he comes across.

I can’t help my upbringing or my life
you can try not to be an aggy snob though

Ime it's the middle classes who are always trying to chat particularly at the school gates. I just think they are nosy or trying to show off. I'm upper class & don't talk to anyone outside my circle. Even with my staff, some of whom who have been working for me for years I don't exchange anything more than a few pleasantries.

Maybe they're just a bit less evolved than you, OP, floating up there majestically on your puffy white, bin-free cloud, a thousand leagues above the mundane cares of the madding crowd back in Sutton Coldfield.

I'm baffled why you thought this interaction was related to 'class'. I'm not so daft to think there aren't topics that might be more closely associated with one class, eg I'm working class and would be unlikely to be discussing polo or tuition fees. But subjects like the weather, what happened to the lost submarine or train strikes are pretty class neutral, as I feel is the 'dross' you mentioned.
Some people are more extroverted, some less so.
Genuinely, what makes you think talking 'twaddle' (loudly) is something working class people actively try to engage in? How is it different to for example, the business man on the train berating the service he's recieved after hes paid X much his season ticket?

I think OP is a troll or a trash journo looking for a story as they've not come back and the post sounds a bit dodgy and goady.

Where are you @LazyJack

Hahahahahahaha! hahahahahahahaha! hahahahahahahah!

This is a personality thing not a class thing. On paper I’m very middle class yet I’d quite happily go weeks at a time not speaking to anyone other than my immediate family.

If the OP was middle class she would know that the word she should I have used in her first post is “ uninterested “ not “ disinterested”.

Uninterested means a lack of interest.

Disinterested means impartial or unbiased.

I think it’s a confidence thing maybe. Confident people talk more to strangers I find.

It's not a class thing, it's a personality type

YABU.
Nothing to do with class and everything to do with personality.

I'm in NZ so don't consider myself of any class, but I am happy to talk to complete strangers about things. I am a receptionist, so I am used to doing this, but even when I was quite young I would talk to anyone who talked to me - and I am far from being extrovert, I just enjoy talking!

I've heard it all now.

I think that Upper class are the worst for small talk - "do you know Flimbim, I was at school with Mitsy, you must eat at Enrichos" etc- style nonsense. Put any two UC Brits in the same corner of a country and they will find each other and bore the life out of anyone around trying to "place" each other. WC/MC - amateurs by comparison.

I'm MC and would talk to anyone (though not - perhaps - the OP).

When you think that every inane MC situation has been covered, some idiot finds another one to discuss.

Clearly being a rude snob is a middle class trait.

It's all about personality and curcumstance. Those 2 people may have been incredibly lonely and it was the first conversation they with another human being for ages. Describing it as 'prattle' makes you sound like an insufferable snob. Would it have been better if they were discussing politics or art?

*circumstance