Conversation, Reconsidered

Thinking about: Other people

In my previous post, I described what I referred to as vitamin P. In the way I am using this term, it doesn’t refer to a chemical compound; rather, it refers to our psychological need for ongoing interactions with other people—hence, the letter P. I suggested that a deficiency of this “vitamin” would undermine not our physical health but our emotional wellbeing.

Think about what happens during social interactions. The dominant feature is conversation. In a satisfying conversation, there will be few lulls. And what do we talk about? Lots of things:

• The weather

• Our hobbies and health

• News and sporting events

• What we have been doing and plan to do

• TV shows and TikTok videos

• Cultural and fashion trends

• Our work or, if we are students, our classes

And not to be forgotten, we talk about people who aren’t part of the conversation—in other words, we gossip.