Why does my friend ask nothing but useless questions?

OK ok…

My now husband used to ask me the same thing when we were dating. The simple fact is I didn’t think I was particularly interesting as a person, and would rather hear about his day, and what he was up to and what he thought of things. It took a while for him to convince me that my point of view mattered and that I had interesting things to say.

So, I think you’re bang on.

If she is truly self-conscious, it may take some time, but she’ll come around if you show interest in listening to her. Try asking her some stupid, simple questions. Just get her used to talking about herself.

Believe me, it’s a lot easier than remedying the opposite problem. ^_^

Best of luck, love.

Sorry, you have no profile, so I don’t know if you, yourself are male or female, @Francuccinello . In either case, it might be that your female friend has a crush on you and is self conscious because she can’t stop thinking about kissing your luscious lips.

I think you are right about your friend being self-conscious.
A conversation is supposed to be a two way exchange. After you answer a question, see if you can ask a related question. You can also compliment her, though not excessively. What is really important is to remain relaxed and show that you are comfortable in her company and that you are interested in what she has to say. That will help her to loosen up a bit.

Some people find it really hard to initiate a conversation and end up in talking things which others may find stupid. They hardly open up and talk about their feelings, and there are usually many reasons for this. As you said she grew up with her grandmother, may be this behavior could be related to some negative things that happened in her childhood which can affect the way she opens up to people.
So what you need to do is to try and find out if there is an underlying reason. Just talk to her about it. Don’t get angry or upset, just keep calm and talk. Try to support her as much as you can and try not to let it affect your relationship.

@Francuccinello could you give examples of the kinds of questions you are hearing from her?

I knew someone like that. She would hardly wait for the question to be answered before she would hit me with another one. I really don’t think it mattered, or if she even heard, what I was saying. She just tried to keep be talking.
I figured she read an article in Cosmo about how to attract a man by making him feel like he was a good conversationalist. I found it annoying and moved on.

You know, you tell or make someone feel worthless and stupid and they start to believe it eventually. I’ve been around so many people who’s parents and people in their lives just tried to break them down emotionally and mentally that sometimes they don’t come back. Or maybe she’s not very intelligent, hard to tell from your Q.

If you’re interested in helping her, take the time to build your friend up, and start real conversations with her about important things, and just make her feel important and loved. That doesn’t mean blowing sunshine, it means just thinking about how to build her up, maybe help her pick some flattering outfits, get her hair done, mani/ pedi date, that kind of thing.

In the end, in all of our relationships, we should all be taking the time to build up our spouses, friends and family as much as possible. :)