‘But enough about you …’ How to survive in a world of monologuists, interrupters and trauma dumpers

The useful part

Conversations are supposed to be two-sided – but all too often we come up against someone who's passionately, exclusively in love with the sound of their own voice. Time to fight back … When I was in my early teens, I was often invited round to a schoolfriend's house for dinner. Her family struck me as wildly progressive: they were Danish and indulged in all sorts of "out-there" activities – fondues, candle-making and, most terrifying of all, the talking stick.

How it works

• When we left, 90 minutes later, he finally had the grace to turn to me and ask: "And how are things with you?" Walking home, I felt a mixture of disappointment and irritation.
• "In face-to-face situations, people are forgetting how...
• Before the meal was served, someone would retrieve the sacred broom handle and it would be passed around the table.
• Despite it being the most stressful thing ever (it meant being in the spotlight, and then remembering to keep quiet the rest of the time), I now frequently yearn for a more convenient version of that stick.
• For example, I met a friend recently who I see infrequently but keep up with via voice notes.

What to take from it

I couldn't help wondering if our one-sided virtual updates had played a part in the problem. Although it was coined by the sociologist Charles Derber in his 1979 book The Pursuit of Attention, the term seems more relevant than ever. No sooner had we sat down than he launched into a long discourse about his new marathon training food plan.

Example or evidence

• There is a name for this type of egocentric behaviour – "conversational narcissism".
• "WhatsApp communication and voice notes are really a series of monologues," says Charlotte Fox Weber, a psychotherapist.

Details worth keeping

You could speak only if you had possession of the stick.