Don't give me 'get off of social media'. I want practical tips that can be used when talking to random people in public places.

Perhaps stow away the things you use to ensure isolation. In my case, I wear earbuds everywhere and hum the song so those around me know I can't hear them, ensuring no attempt at interaction will be made. I never look directly at them so they can't wave me down or try to get my attention.

Reading this, it seems I gave a masterclass in the exact opposite of what you're asking but it might make something click for you.

Join clubs.

Learning by doing - stop thinking about it and jump in the pool. I can list every boxing technique or give you a book on enterprise patterns for software development, you're not going to read something and be good at it.

To ask a dumb question, where do you feel you're struggling when it comes to talking to random people?
Is it striking up a conversation, maintaining a conversation, or just generally trying to be more approachable?

Dont be afraid of silence. Very cool people will allow a silent pause and not feel the need to say anything. Awkward people get anxious about the silence and become visibly uncomfortable.

It's cool, just eat a couple bites and take a sip, nothing wrong with not saying anything if nothing comes to mind that moment.

Can you sing? Join a choir. Can you play an instrument? Join a band.

Book club? Boardgame club? ALL THE CLUBS.

Ask for advice or help. Then the hard part, be a good listener. Instant friend.

Don’t talk “random people in public places” — head out into the world, and and engage with the world. There will be some people in those places, and some of them might seem cool or interesting, so say hello — or do something nice for someone. If they appreciate what you said or did, they might continue to engage further. Over the course of days or months, you’ll be talking with friends in public.

The point being the goal isn’t to corner a random person like a dating match. Be organic and open, and in time and with persistence, you’ll end up where you wanted to be.

I mean grain of salt because I don't have much of one but kinda old and married. Just go do stuff. Like my library has all sorts of programs and if I would easily go to them over watching something or playing a video game if I had the time. I do go to protests and meet people also "concerned" over whats going on in the country. I don't have the cash for cons right now but can always ghost (go to the location and hang out with folks in the common sorta public areas of the hotel).

Ha me too, and yes people like to talk so they like people who listen 😀

There is of course skill to listening and giving follow up questions, but i think the key is to he comfortable.

If you're stressed as introvert thiking "how many people are around, i wonder anybody is looking at me, this girl is cute i wonder if she wants to hook up, and does she want to hook up with me? Oh no she knows now I'm nervous am i biting my lip again? . . . "

Then yeah it's gonna be hard to listen and ask followup questions, but if you can relax a little it's not too hard.

One thing for me is i am mortified at the thought of asking a personal question and getting pushback. But if you listen to someone and they say "so i had to go the doctor this morning." Ask them "oh what did you go to the doctor for?". They'll usually tell you, "well my knee has been hurting and then they said . . . " If it's something really personal they don't want to talk about they'll usually say "well it's a bit oersonal but long story short . . ."

Important thing to remember is that if anyone is chatting with you in the first place, they want you to like them, and if you listen and act engaged that's even better. People aren't looking for ways to shit on you like it's high school all over again, and if they do, they just got something going on at home or at work it's not about you actually.

you just walk away, you don't have to see them in school tomorrow, if they were in any way unpleasant to you.

My trick is being open, interesting, and excited. Everyone has something to say and I love being someone to hear it. Couple that with my refusal to acknowledge the social feaux pas of Turing pleasantry into conversation and the fact that I look and dress like a cartoon and it's hard not to make friends everywhere you go.

Legitimately, the biggest thing that helped me was to join an RPG group. For me it was D&D. It made just talking to random people way easier, and I made a ton of friends throughout the years. Granted, I play exclusively online and join random games now and again, so I always have a new batch of people to talk to.

Otherwise, ask questions. Not boring, "how's the weather" / "how are you" questions. But questions like "do you have any pets" or "do you have a favorite place/restaurant/hike/bookstore in the area". Personal ish questions. People like to talk about their favorites or their things or their pets.

Also, mirroring questions. If someone asks you about your pets, asking them back is a good way to keep a conversation flowing, so I've found.

Practice with old people.

People fifty plus grew up talking to strangers for entertainment.

The drive by flirt. If you see a pretty girl walking towards you, smile and compliment her clothing. "Great shoes' and keep on walking. Don't look back.

On on that note, everybody loves compliments. "Great T-shirt" will make anyone's day.

Team shirts are are good way to get people to talk to you, especially if you live in a sports crazy town.

Also, a Superman "S" shirt will get at least one comment a day.

Do what you like/love in public or group settings. When talking to people, really listen to them and take it in. Be interested in what they’re saying and who they are.

Give people grace to be imperfect. You’re not gonna meet your bestie all the time, but you might meet people that you enjoy being around to some degree. Don’t have to agree on everything. In fact, be comfortable sharing spaces with people that you don’t agree with. Engage with people from a neutral and inquisitive perspective.

Doing what you like in public/group settings helps filter out some of the people you may not get along with.

Good luck and have fun!

Two approaches that basically amount to the same thing:

1. Join some sort of organized activity.
2. Force yourself to be social.

About the latter: In early 2007 I realized that my life was pretty lacking at the age of 24, mostly stemming from the fact that I enjoyed solitude a bit too much. Sure, people would come around from time to time (I lived Ina collective), but beyond that not much was happening.

So I decided that I would be more outgoing, in the literal sense. Every day I would do something, anything, in an effort to be the "instigator" for anything social. This could be pretty much anything from visiting someone I knew across town, to just phoning someone up to hang out.

The collective nature of my housing situation usually meant that I happened to be there when a party happened. However, after a month of just trying to be more outgoing I was actively invited places. This was all new to me. Suddenly people were phoning me to see if I wanted to do something.

I kept at it for a month. It was fucking exhausting. But it proved to me that it doesn't really take much effort - all you have to do is to reach out.

In retrospect I think doing it every day is kind of extreme, at least for my personality type. But my anecdotal evidence stands clear: make an effort, take the initiative, and things will happen organically.

Thank you. This is practical I like it.

Is it unnatural to say hi and then ask "do you have any pets?". Or am I overthinking it?

Organic and open seems like the key, here. Thank you for this. This is practical. I like it.

Thank you this is helpful.

Being more approachable seems like the problem I am having.

Thanks.

Be good looking. Everything is easier when you are good looking.

Edit: Lose weight, take care of hair and skin. Clothes, style all help.

Learn how to be honestly invested into people you talk with:

• ask them meaningful questions about them.
• aks them open-ended questions.
• ask them sub-questions.
• find a topic they are really interested and sparks a joy in their eyes. And go deeper. Try to learn.
• ask why question. "Why do you like this the most?"

For kids I usually go with what is your favorite school subject? Why? What is the best part? Why?...
For grownups ask about their hobbies. Why do they like them? What is the best part?

This is the single most important advice. This is about them not you. And it forms deeper connections.

Extra: Simple smile can really make a strangers day.

You can absolutely talk to absolute strangers.

There are two ways on how to not be a creep:

1. You start in a form of comments:
   Something happens, you comment it. More to yourself that to them. And if they respond you can continue.
2. You randomly catch them looking at you. It must be random. You should not stare under any circumstance. Then you smile. If they do not smile back. Stop. If they do, you can repeat that a few times. And if successful then you can approach them with a simple general question like "are you returning from work?". (Note "Where are you heading?" Can be considered creepy and stalker like).

At any point you must be attentive and if they are uncomfortable immediately stop engaging.

But this is a bad way to make a friend. Those are people you should expect to never see them again. This is just a way to make someone's day better. This is never meany to be anything more than a casual conversation with a stranger.

It's even simpler: wash regularly and brush your teeth, keep your clothes clean and odor-free.

The thing I've found best to get people talking is asking intentional questions. As in, ask a question that you expect an answer for which might allow you to deepen the conversation on the topic.

For a concrete example, imagine you meet someone taking photos in public and you talk to each other. Asking a question like "so you like photography then?" Is probably gonna get an answer like "yeah sure", unless the other person is keen to provide you more details. Instead, asking a question like "what is your favourite photo you ever took?" Or "what kind of photos do you enjoy taking most?" Helps the other person give a concrete answer with some prompt for detail. From the answer, you can then pick what is the part you find most interesting or most likely to be able to talk about and ask another question with the same mindset.

Hopefully they'll also ask you something in return. If they don't, you can attempt to share something voluntarily that's on topic, but if they don't engage at all it may just mean they don't want to talk to you. In which case, end the interaction on your terms while it's still positive and count it as a win.

The worst thing possible: small talk

How does one find a collective to live in?

I don't know. It wasn't a true collective, but it was shorter to write than: I knew someone with a house and a room to let, and there were three others who also rented a room.

Nobody is going to approach you. You have to approach them.

ask them meaningful questions about them.

This is absolutely right. To add to this, find a level at which they're comfortable talking about themselves (i.e. don't get TOO personal right off the start). It' Ok to start off on some trivial small-talk, then moving up to their opinion about something, then more in-depth about why they have that opinion. Keep an eye on whether they're starting to feel uncomfortable and back off if needed.

I had a friend who was excellent at this. I'm a loner by nature but I learned a lot by watching them just talking to people. They weren't talking to them to get anything, they just enjoyed talking to people. That's a great attitude to have.

If you're in the US:

• search for "co-op housing rental". Sometimes these are suburban, but other times they're rooms in a building
• if there's a "food co-op" near you, then check out the bulletin board. also most food co-ops have some way to join, you can ask "by the way, do you know of any housing co-ops around here?" many/most people who work at a food co-op will be happy to point you in the right direction.

The key is to get out of your head — thinking about what you want or feel — and take someone else’s perspective. How can you help someone without expecting anything in return? How are others thinking and feeling? What do they need?

You’ll be amazed at the difference.

Ah nice, UK here but will try this

Talk to yourself in the mirror to raise your Charisma score. Like The Sims.

Im glad thanks for reading. Idk if this is helpful too but then i turned 35 found a life partner and stopped trying to socialize lmao. I guess i say that to hopefully ease your anxiety about potentially having to do this forever.

I still go out for work event like once a month just a beer or two and go home, which isn't bad at all.

but yeah i just dont like socializing lmao -- still, it's necessary as a human especially in your 20s, just my perspective.

Do no flirt at people walking by please. Otherwise good advice.

Make/spend more money.

Our system is set up so it's the only way to exist in society.

I may have to practice fake-smiling in front of a mirror funny enough.

I found that giving at least some personal information before asking about theirs makes it more comfortable.

People will even want to talk about themselves after you talk about yourself, often without even having to ask them.

So for example "Hi my name is Jankat" is the better way of asking "What's your name?"

And if you have to choose only one, be excited for other people. Genuine interest gets you so far, even if you don't feel very interesting yourself.

That is super important and hard to master, at least for me. I'm usually happy to hear whatever they're telling me and I will probably remember it for a very long time but if I have to ask... it is like a blank page paralysis.

It's smiling at someone and giving them a compliment.

It's only 'flirting' in the sense that he's interacting with someone, even for less than 10 seconds.

It helps having a list of predefined general questions memorized.
Like: What are your hobbies? What do you like about them? Why?

You can skip the first few questions if you already know the answers. Like going straight to: "What is your favorite thing about football? Why?
You have to train a bit to continue from there. To continue comming up with questions. Like: "Do you just like to watch football or do you also play it?"

But the hardest part is actually to start and ask first few questions.

How you start is not that important. Just that you do. For example you can start with: "Who is your favourite super hero? Why? What super powers would you chose for yourself? Why? Why not the...?"

Do not forget abot "why" follow up. Or they will often close conversation with a short answer.

Conversation can then continue in any direction. Do not force it in a direction you want it to go.

It's at least better than going into the swimming pool and removing the ladder.

Yeah i know what you mean. Don't do that. You even called it drive by flirting.

Don't catcall, let people get from a to b without beeing talked at by strangers. If I go shopping I am not interested what you think about my shirt.

I don't really drink much but befriending a local bartender has made me much more social than I am on my own. I moved to this town without knowing anyone. My bartender friend grew up here and knows damn near everyone in town. I am now on friendly terms with a lot of people around town. I might not remember all of their names but a friendly face is a friendly face.

I find breaking the ice to be difficult but feel much less iced out with a friend who is warm with everyone.

I should add that I became a regular at his bar for the most antisocial reason to be honest. I worked second shift and lived alone at the time. I would stop by after work about an hour(sometimes less) before closing to get food if the kitchen was open. I went there for food more than drinks but food didn't always work out. I did this on Mondays because I figured Monday was the least busy day a bar would have. At that hour it was usually pretty quiet. Over time we became friends because he's a friendly guy.