Friends Without Shared

Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Friends Without Shared

Friends Without Shared Interests 

I’m sure many of you may be in this same situation, and I’ve been in it for a while but it’s kind of bothered me lately. All of the friends I have in real life are friends I met in preschool when we bonded over our love for Taylor Swift and stuffed animals, and while we all still love those things, our interests have changed a lot over the years. I’m super into music while my friends just listen to whatever is on the radio. I really like learning languages while Spanish is some of my friends’ least favorite class.. they’re all really nice and lovely people and I don’t want to just make new friends and ignore them, but we never have anything to talk about and just about nothing in common.

Can anyone relate? Does anyone know what to do in this situation?

- Leila 

submitted by Savvy
(April 23, 2018 - 6:56 am)

back to the Down to Earth

Hmm. I believe I can relate to this often. I have some friends who I have known for quite a while, but who I don't see as often as I feel we should, simply because we don't go to similar activities. I think the best thing to do would be to find something you and your friend both like, or something you think they'd like, then find a way for you to get together and do that thing regularly. Then, when you want to have a conversation, you could talk about that thing, or maybe something else you could potentially do together. Maybe you both like to take walks, or ride bikes, or dance, or play video games. Just make sure he/she knows you're making an effort to hang out with them.

Hope that helps! :)

Jwyn <3

submitted by Jwyn, age 13, The Realm Of Creativity
(April 23, 2018 - 2:40 pm)

tip top

submitted by top
(April 24, 2018 - 9:41 am)

You could ask what they love about their interests, have a debate or discussion so that you can understand and empathize even if you don't feel the same. Maybe learn something extra about their things so you can talk about them more, and celebrate with appropriate pomp and excitement when something really good happens, or mourn/comfort/distract when they go poorly. You can also trade stuff from your interests; you specifically could recommend songs or make playlists for your friends, or help them study for language classes and tests. I usually draw things for my friends (who happen to be quite different from me), or show them what I've been working on. It helps.

Having friends with different interests has a few upsides; you don't get jealous of things you're not into, you can try things you've never heard of but they have, and you can learn more about parts of the world you wouldn't ordinarily get into.

But yeah, it sucks to have no idea what they're talking about. And the awkward silence that comes when you try to avoid that.

submitted by Viola?, age Secret, Secret
(April 26, 2018 - 5:52 pm)