Have you ever boarded a ride, taxi or motorcycle and found the driver “excessively” chatty? I’m sure that if you look back in time, you will have one or two examples.
My very first experience was when I was in secondary school and my parents thought I was old enough to ride on a motorcycle by myself. I was coming back from school and the motorcycle rider was this young, dark and slender man who smiled nicely. The ride was a total of 7 minutes and I had a summary of this thirty-something-year-old man’s life at the grip of my hand. It would have been enough to write a magazine.
Subsequently, there were more vague experiences of these men sharing their stories with me, a complete stranger. Sometimes, it’s not exactly their life stories they’re sharing. They’d share their opinions about the government, the weather, the state of economy of the country, anything really.
Often times, I engage in these conversations as I’m too polite not to. Sometimes, I enjoy these conversations and other times, I just smile politely and pray for the ride to end quickly.
Why the over-sharing?
In my opinion, it could just be an attempt on their part to fill the awkward air with words. You’d agree that it works sometimes. It calms you down and you’d find that you might alight in a better mood than you boarded.
It could also just be their cheerful personality. Some people are just like that.
For some, I think it’s an avenue for them to talk about their life problems with strangers. Like an open diary or therapy sessions with people you’ll never see again. They probably can’t have these conversations with family members and it’s easier because there’s a 1 in a 1000000 chance of them meeting you again.
The problem though is that sometimes the recipient is also battling problems and is unable to tolerate the stories. “Just shut up” seems to scream in their head.
Do you have other reasons as to why you think they over-share?
PS: This is a guest post by Arogundade Zainab, a member of the 2k19 Medicine and Surgery Class. Views expressed belong solely to the writer and not that of the Alexander Brown Hall Press Organisation.
