In Defense Of Small Talk: It’s Not A Hollow Waste Of Time, It’s An Important Social Lubricant

“Small talk is not wasted talk. … [It] allows strangers to make crucial first connections across demographic lines. And it’s far from meaningless. People are rebelling against it today in a misguided dismissal of social graces that seem old-fashioned, boring, or wasteful. In fact, we’ve never needed such graces more.”