What is your favorite type of social interaction?

I used to love thinking like that. I still do with myself sometimes. I keep conversations small now because work never gets done as I can go on and on. My new favorite type of social interaction has been online gaming lately. I still love the idea of being on stage and singing and everyone enjoying music. But wow, I might be growing out of that one too? I don’t even like being around bars or anything like that. I’m content with being with my partner. Oh becoming adult, what have you done to me.

I love having in-depth conversations with people like what you described – where I get to know the person at a more fundamental level than before.

I also love the ones where I feel like my ribs might burst from laughter.

#1: Long, deep conversations about the complexities of a policy/action.

#2: Kareoke.

If I have a conversation with a friend over 3 hours, then we must have a lot in common and I enjoy chatting so no Id don’t feel tired at all… nice to chat and feel comfortable…

Sex.

@HungryGuy hahahaha

Turntable.fm

I love deep conversations. But if I’ve had a ton of them in a short period of time I get a little burned out and then I appreciate conversations that are light and witty.

I’m with @tranquilsea

I too love deep, interesting, philosophical conversations that run a gauntlet of subjects, but, these need to be balanced with light hearted, low intensity conversations too.

I have one friend who is even more mentally zippy than I am, and while he is, by far, my most stimulating friend on an intellectual and spiritual level, 2 hours is about all I can take before I need to defrag. lol

Heh..his name is “Frank” so, I should change that to needing to “De-Frank.” lol

lol @Coloma

@stellamedusa I looove ttfm.
It defintiely changes with my mood. I do get really enthusiastic and I feel recharged after a deep, intense discussion with a small group of like minded people.

I love having deep conversations with like minded friends. Like @Coloma said, balance is important. I love spending time with mischievous friends, doing mischievous things too!

@ANef_is_Enuf

Are you an extrovert type?
Extroverts are energized by social interaction, hell, I have always joked that I am like a parrot, under stimulation will cause me to pluck my own feathers. lol

I have mellowed in my mid-life parrothood, and now enjoy my serenity equally, but, old parrots still like to squawk a lot. lol

Night out at the bar.

One on one conversations are great, but ones with more people can be better, it depends. The best conversations are the ones that I get lost in. Where we’ve been talking so long that we don’t care what time it is or how long it’s been; we just want to keep talking and listening—those are the best. And yes, generally, they are more in-depth. Superficial conversations can only keep people interested for so long until they become boring.

Fluther.

@Coloma hell no.
I’m not painfully bashful or anything. I can go out and talk to strangers, and I’m friendly and approachable. However, socializing, in general, exhausts me. But, the “right” kind of socializing makes me feel refreshed. Which, I’m sure is true for everyone in one way or another.

I like one-on-one social interactions, involving long and involved conversation with a good friend. Conversations about life, what we like to do, the future, the past, etc. Social “butterfying” at cocktail parties and with groups of people bore me.

Lunch, dinner, or a coffee or tea date with a single friend, or two at most if they know each other and my relationships to the two are very similar. I prefer a nice but relatively casual setting where I can have a high-quality meal without having to dress up too much.

I like a wide-ranging personal and intellectual conversation with a friend whom I know well enough to have some shared history with and not have to explain everything, with whom I have an affectionate reciprocal understanding and respect, who has intelligent thoughts to offer, and who has a large contextual field to draw upon.

—
To your details, @athenasgriffin: For us introverts, any kind of social interaction is potentially draining. Even with a dearly beloved friend, there is a certain amount of energy that goes into paying attention, empathizing, telling stories, responding appropriately, etc. We can feel tired afterward (as opposed to extroverts who build energy this way), but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to do it. It’s just that we look elsewhere for ways to recharge.

@HungryGuy I knew you’d say that. ;)

@MRSHINYSHOES – Ayuuuuup! :-p

I have had conversations about everything, from quantum physics to what stuff would look like in 4D, to bonzai plants, to how long the conversation is. I like conversations like this.

I went on a school band trip about a year and a half ago, and had to room with three guys, one of which I was close friends with, the other two I liked but barely knew. The first night there, we stayed up for eight hours just talking about anything and everything with varying levels of profundity. We started talking about girls, then moved into what it is in particular about girls we like, to drugs and sex, to philosophy, to deep personal secrets, to quantum physics, then we fell asleep. It was one of the greatest conversations I’ve ever had because it was so spontaneous and deep. Afterwards, the four of us knew essentially everything about each other at the time, since then we haven’t caught up, but it was a wonderful moment. Those are the type of conversations I like, not necessarily the spontaneity factor, for my really close friends do this often, but deep conversations where you get to know somebody.

Great discourse before and after great intercourse. Then, sandwiches.

I love interacting with people who are capable of profundities, but who never take themselves too seriously, and who have great senses of humor! : )

Walking and talking with my best friend – everything comes up from sex to politics to our kids…...

@everephebe The calm after coitus.

Nice alliteration.^

Face to face with my friends somewhere we’re relaxed.

@CaptainHarley

Amen to that!
Must have humor!

I’m not very social. Typically I don’t enjoy being around a lot of people. It makes me feel uneasy and it drains my energy,

@CaptainHarley I think that I would I could have a good conversation with you.

On the other hand I feel perfectly at home while running with huge crowds like in the Boston or NY City marathon with over 30K people. I can talk with those folks and feel good about it.

My favorite type of interaction is when my partner and I are together and it doesn’t matter what we do.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir

That is very wise. All we truly have in life is right now. To find someone to walk at least part of the way with you is a blessing. : )

Once again, I have to agree with @HungryGuy. Sex is not only my most favorite kind of social interaction, but it is by far the deepest, most intense, most connected and most meaningful social interaction there is. Sex is transformative and takes me way beyond myself and my partner to a connection with the all.

Of course, you need to connect on many other levels first—conversation being but one of those other levels. But in the end, you just can’t, as far as I’m concerned, really know someone until you’ve been lovers. That’s one reason why men, at least for me, are difficult to know, and particularly difficult to trust. It is also why, once I’ve committed to an exclusive relationship, there will be no new deeply connected friends.

@wundayatta

The best path I know of is to first become friends with someone, then later try to make them your best friend. Then try sex. Sex is, beleve it or not, something that does not last, but if you’re with your best friend, the sex can become irrelevant ( again, believe it or not ).

Drinking! :)

@CaptainHarley You may be right for your life, but you aren’t for mine. The friends who last in my life are the ones who I have been intimate with. Sex, believe it or not, is probably the most crucial experience there is, and if you haven’t found that to be the case, I suspect you’ve been missing something. But different strokes for different folks. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.

@wundayatta

You’re young yet. Give it a chance. It’s going to become less important the older you get. You just have to trust me on this. It use to be the single most important thing in my life.

Just being with my partner. From working on her car, to sitting on the beach (with her) and a glass of wine.

@CaptainHarley Nice to hear that 55 is young. I hope to be “young” well into my 90s. I don’t know what I’d feel like if it became more difficult to perform. Most people I talk to with that problem find it enormously frustrating. Now the desire is still there, but they can’t do anything about it.

But what if I lose my desire? I don’t know. Part of me thinks I’d lose my will to live. Part of me thinks it would be a relief. Right now the part of me that thinks I’d lose my will to live is ascendant because for most of my life, I wished I didn’t have desire. I had too much desire and not enough connection. Now, I finally feel like there is a potential for the connection I’ve always wanted. To lose my desire at this money would be very demoralizing. For the moment, I enjoy my libido in a way I never did before.