What is "small talk"?

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I'm sort of new to the term and it seemed to be a really stupid question to ask. Some aspies are bad at small talk, but I don't know what it is.

Play along:

What shirt is that you're wearing?

True- "smalltalk" can be as simple as complimenting someone on something like clothing, hairstyle, shoes, jewelry, makeup, eyeglasses, cologne, perfume, botox, whatever.
If you know the person well and know something about them, it can be an inquiry into their well being or the well being of others mutually known by both of you.
It can even be an obnoxiously rhetorical question, example:
"Are you on drugs????"

LOL>

Yeah. For some reason I shy away from those kind of things. I just keep pressuring myself to say something.

Oh, I just got it on sale at the Gap. I like yours. My brother has one just like it.

*long silence*

Um.... so... see any good movies lately?

(see, this is why I fail at smalltalk. I never know how to keep it going. Do you keep it on the same topic or just... what?)

That sounds about right - however I am useless at small talk too.
I never know what questions to ask or how to answer them, especially if i think the questions are silly which most of them tend to be - well to me anyways

Maybe its worth writing some answers down in advance to general small talk questions asked by NT's to help.

To me, I think small talk is like "How are you?" or saying stuff like "Nice weather we're having." Basically a small conversation.

He must have really good taste! I saw Ben Afleck wear one like it in his last movie, "Shirts I love".
Did you see it?

Using as many words as possible to convey as little information as possible.

I've tried that, it just confuses the other person.

I disagree. It's called "small" talk for a reason.
More likely a short exchange of pleasantries, current events or familial questions that don't require great depth of explanation.

It's a lot like what my cats do when they sniff each others' noses... kind of a "I'm not going to bite you and I see you won't bite me either" kind of thing. They're getting the scent of each other, basic physical information, basic body-language stuff like how confident they feel and whether or not they want to drive you out of their territory. Dogs sniff each others' butts for the same reason. And NTs make small talk. The goal is to acknowledge each others' presence and figure out some basic information about the other person.

Mmm, ok, fair enough, I was trying to be glib.

It's a green shirt with a collar. The collar has round plastic buttons. Thankfully, my shirt a 100% cotton and machine washable on a Normal 50 degrees centigrade setting or slightly above. I always use non-Bio powder because the enzymes in the blue bio capsules always irritate my skin, you see. The shirt is suitable for wet ironing. This means I can put it in the airing cupboard and don't have to worry about using a fabric softener.

Funnily enough, I purchased this shirt from a clothes shop and I bought it with money.

My shirt was manufactured by someone using a sowing machine, which I find extraordinary.


Well you did ask...


How are you cabbages?

What species are they?

Are you using slug pellets or growing them organically?

A: "Hello"
B: "Hi"
A: "How are you today?"
B: "I'm ok. How are you?"
A: "I'm good thanks"
A: "Nice weather today"
B: "Yes it is"

Or something along those lines.

can a conversation be 'small' ???

small talk - insignificant conversation

i would however strongly advise anyone to consider
any possible application of the term 'insignificant'