Small Talk

Small Talk

While browsing the bookstore, I came across Debra Fine’s The Fine Art of Small Talk—it’s not a scholarly work and has no references to research; it’s a simple discussion of the dos and don’ts of social talk or conversation. The book made me think that although small talk occupies most of our communication talk time, we devote amazingly little attention to it. I suspect it may be because we assume that small talk is inconsequential, without rules or strategies (as, say, in public speaking), and most often mindless. But maybe not.