Afraid of Friendly People/ Friendly Interactions...

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I agree with the post about Owing, and feeling that If I reciprocate their friendly introduction, then I am later going to feel pressured into doing something I don't want or in the line of business may be something not quite right.

I think it is about past experiences for me. I can be very skeptical about people who are really nice to me from the beginning. Some of the meanest people I have ever known were really nice when we first met, but then I discovered that they had bad intentions and were abusive.

It depends on the kind of "friendliness."

I don't like patronizing people who talk to me in a "pat the little girl on the head" kind of voice. (I am small and look younger than my age).

Then there are the kind of people I encounter at the library where I work. I have had people try to touch me inappropriately and those who just wanted to talk on and on about nothing when I was working. The first is creepy, while the second is distracting.

If a stranger talks to me at a bus stop, I do feel quite happy at the thought that somebody has took the time to notice me in a positive way and start friendly small talk. Generally I fear strangers because I worry about being judged, but not when someone is being friendly.

It's always a struggle at work when I need to share my lunch break with others in a small space. They try to start all sorts of little conversations and it's always the same topics again and again. Then they expect me to stop reading and engage in that conversation and most of the time I really don't want to do it / I'm not interested.
But yes, I can see how that might be a rude thing to do, so I force myself to talk. Then I remember a few details, so next day I can ask them a few questions if they start a conversation again.

I do like these folks, I just don't like talking to them too much.
Sometimes they do come to me with problems and then I do my best to help them and find a solution and I can talk for a long time, but the general blah blah "what will you have for dinner?" "how was your weekend?" "I'm on a diet again, yes, too much cheesecake"... I just don't enjoy it at all. Being a woman doesn't help because my female work mates always chatter about these things, day in day out and want me to join in (but not our male boss, they leave him in peace).

I was walking my dog (she's a Basset Hound) on the beach the other day and a nice friendly woman who was also walking her dog started chatting to me. Normally, that wouldn't have been so bad as we both had a shared interest (dogs), but there was a 10-foot swell and large waves were crashing on the shore. I really had trouble hearing what she was saying and was just nodding but couldn't really take part in the conversation too well. I felt that I came off as rude and felt bad for the rest of the walk. Others on the beach didn't seem to have any problems having talking so it was probably just me and my noise sensitivity.

I will record grattitude for working in a bit of a specialised technical area, as we have both the technical stuff itself to talk about plus often compatible special interests as well, many of which brought us into the field to begin with.