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The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
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That's one of my fave quotes, right there. For whatever reason, maybe because I'm often on the quiet side, people throughout my life have talked incessantly. Or maybe it's nothing to do with me; mayhap they're like that with everyone. Like what, you ask? They talk, and talk, and talk. About what? Something of interest to them, that they apparently think will be of interest also, to anyone & everyone. Fun fact: it isn't. STFU already.
I spent 1.5 years in North Carolina, which I'll write about at some point. Anyhoots, NC is distinctive in many ways, maybe it's all the south. One of them, is the degree to which total strangers talked to me. Talked at me is more accurate, but regardless it was everywhere there. There was zero prompting from me. Zero comments from me such as 'oh that's interesting, please tell me more for the next 20 minutes in an uninterrupted manner.' Nothing like that from me, ever. On a seemingly daily basis, I wandered into conversational quicksand from which there was no easy exit. On one memorable occasion it happened at crosswalk. That's all it took. A red light.
Some were smart & well read, ergo it was like someone walking up to me and reciting a Wikipedia entry at random, unprompted. Weird, but could be worse. Actually, it could be a whole lot worse, and often was. Boring topic, boring speaker, no breaks in the monologue to try to politely exit.
This isn't a uniquely NC thing as it happens to me everywhere I go. I call them 'human radios.' Because: it's a 1-way transmission. Radio sound travels 1 direction only. It's a monologue, not a conversation.
So: which are you? Are you the radio? Or the audience?