No one seems to have much of a personality these days?

[Signingwithafelttippen]

Including myself in this too probably!

Has anyone noticed this? Maybe it's an age thing?
When my Dc was younger, I remember the kids parties having a bit of an atmosphere about them, all us parents were knackered, but we generally tried to have a laugh, chatted, made conversation and were interested in one another (or at least pretended to be)
Mid -late 40's now, party today and a couple of weeks ago, just so flat, people barely speaking.
I visit my family, with Dsis and Dbro there, we all chat but having a laugh seems more of a thing of the past?
Everything seems so dull, are we all just collectively depressed or is it just the people around me?
I miss people with a bit of life about them, an interesting story to tell or a bit of wit

Is it just me?

Don't you find that sort of sad though?

I’d rather not say

I agree with this.

This is another thing Ive noticed. In for example a mums group, a couple of them can come across as quite fun, yet when you meet them in real life, they're completely different to their sm personally

Ive never been loud in my life and only danced in my house music days, usually fuelled by substances, I still like to connect with people though

Covid definitely did something very strange, life was like a dream pre covid, compared to now, so strange

I feel the complete opposite and that is me being as I say, fairly introverted

Yes totally miss it all

I have different personality depending on who I am with. My close friends know who I am and can be really goofy and funny with them.
I have learnt that it’s better to pack this personality away when I am not with my close friends or family- as people get easily offended and it’s better to have the same boring conversations which is very safe !

This is such an interesting thread to read. I’ve been thinking a lot about this too. I moved to a new area at the same time as having my two kids and so have had to make a lot of new friends / new conversations and I’ve found a really varied, interesting lovely bunch of people to be friends with aged from 25-45.
However I’ve developed a real fear that I’ve got nothing interesting to say anymore and that I’m the boring one in the circles I’ve made.
My kids don’t sleep so I’m always tired and I don’t have people around for childcare so I don’t get out to hobbies etc much and I work remotely so I’m not going to an office, but actually I’ve also noticed that any free time I do have i waste it on social media or watching old reruns of tv shows.
But also Ive given up keeping up with politics or causes because i dont know what to believe anymore as theres so much disinformation - im wary striking up a “deep” conversation in case i reference something fake or exaggerated.
im hoping personally its a just a phase and ill get my mojo back and its reassuring to see from the people I’ve got to know recently there’s still a lot of interesting people out there.

Sorry-sounds miserable.😪

Yup, I do this all the time. But I live in the US where people are generally more upbeat, optimistic and sociable. When I lived in London, I would be lucky to see my friends once a month. Here my friendship group meets 2-3 times a week, we go away together a few times a year (road trips, weekends away, festivals, ski trips, holidays). It’s just a completely different mindset/approach to friendship compared to what I had ever experienced in the UK. We’re actually in each others’ lives, not just scheduling a brunch every 6 weeks.

My point is that it is possible that many people may feel rather constrained in their social interactions due to worrying about saying the wrong things and inadvertently offending someone.
Acceptable terminology is constantly changing also.

or watching old reruns of tv shows.

Had a conversation with teen saying was struggling to find something to watch on all the services to watch and I think it's demand overload/choice paralysis.

We all seem to end up watching same shows or one that remind us of one we've seen so often but she doing the same shows from years ago. Though some of that is lack of new shows actaully being stuff we want to watch as well.

Then read article moaning the music charts are full of AI slop and songs over a decade old - with new artists really struggling to break through.

Eveyone seem to blame audiences wanting nostalgia though south parks Member berries idea berries literally "member" people into a state of pacified complacency does also seem to have a point.

I think it’s down to me being AuDHD that I prefer the distance and control.

Yeah I think lockdown broke me personally. I couldn't fathom any of it and felt like a weirdo. The readiness to judge seems to have stayed. And I think I just CBA with people's opinions any more. It's much easier socialising with Indian families for some reason, still seems quite normal and they talk about politics and schools in a kind of "interesting views on all sides" way. And if I'm stuck I just talk about cricket so it's easy.

Weirdly, my (not encyclopaedic but any means but I can get by) knowledge of cricket has been a massive advantage in conversing with people!

I would say that having time off from MN helps. It’s easy to spend too much time on here and it’s not always the most positive place. Someone posts a thread about something innocuous and someone replies snarkily and then people compete to see how offended they can get.

So you feel like you can’t say anything in case you cause offence, and that bleeds into your personal life

Yeah it's nice because you can talk about trips you've been on and find out where they've been, nice grounds around the world etc. Stretches through time for me as well.

Not seeing this at all in my circle (early 50s kids late teen young adults). We have a new lease of life and often head to the pub and have lively conversations. Maybe it’s a having younger kids thing?

I haven’t noticed this at all.
I do a lot of social activities with interesting people and we have a lot of fun.
One thing I’ve been doing all year is really working on my eye contact. I’ve found it really improves conversation and it may be a coincidence that I’ve made some really good new friends since I’ve been doing it.

Maybe it's to do with the world generally feeling quite heavy of late 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️. A bit of a philosophical answer but there you go

I have never been to a match outside England but can sound like I know what I’m talking about 🙈

I think it's got something to do with the endless cancel culture and the internet/social media. If you're too pretty/loud/opinionated/successful/anything then you attract haters. You see it on here all the time! Anyone dares make a post about ANYTHING AT ALL and they are picked apart and attacked. The message is to lay low and wind your neck in.
Everything is offensive. Better to be quiet.

I feel as though people generally are more standoffish than in the past, it’s actually memorable when you meet a genuinely warm or funny person when out and about. Mine are only at nursery but finding birthday parties the same, keep hoping things will improve when they go to school and the parents are more familiar. As someone who moved to a totally new area, people don’t seem interested in making new friends. It’s much the same at work too, nobody really chats in the office anymore like we used to 5+ years ago. I do think social media plays a part in it, it makes us feel more connected to others without actually having to form any connection!