Difference between adult and teen social skills?

[Pheenix]

In my hunting of tips and tricks on conversation skills, most seem to follow the structure that you are going to talk to someone like at a dinner party. You start off with introduction. "How are you? What do you work as?" And then follow a rigid structure that remains in this balanced back-and-forth style. One person says something, the other person listens, and answers.
But I am a teen, and when I observe classmates socialize, that is not how they converse. It's more impulsive. Comments are spurted all over the place. People talk, then don't talk, then shift focus, then go out to buy something, then start messing with their bags, then commence in random activities...
And that is where I want to learn to mingle.
Do you know if there are any terms or books on the difference between the adult "traditional" type of socializing and the more laid-back one of youngsters? How do you go about learning the latter?

 

[tehdreamer]

Those adult, traditional types of conversational skills are not for me. I just open with a "Hello" and "How are you feeling today?", then everything else is pretty random. Of course, my social and conversational skills are pretty crappy..so I might not have the best advice about things. But I feel more comfortable being myself and I don't follow a rigid set of rules when I'm being myself.

 

[evanescencefan91]

adults don't poke or squeak to deal with uncomfortable silences

 

[Badjedidude]

Honestly? There's not much difference at all.

 

[Minus]

Honestly? There's not much difference at all.

I was wondering about that. I rarely run across this perfectly balanced conversation and when i do, the age of the person seem to be totally irrelevant. In fact unless it is a relatively short conversation this back and forth balance is rarely maintained.

 

[Badjedidude]

Well... I'm not so sure that communication should have a rigid structure and balance. I mean... probably the only way you're going to experience that is in a high school debate team or something. In real life, well... everyone has different passions and different views of what's important to say.

Sometimes a person needs to get something out, sometimes others feel fine with just listening. *shrug*

The main problem I find with communication these days is that no one seems to genuinely be interested in listening to others. They just sort of wait until the other person stops talking so they can talk again.

 

[Just_Some_Dude]

i don't talk to people. i analyze them. if a person has a certain tone, certain expression, certain demeanor, or certain body language, i will not even speak to him or her. i've learned how people are and who to avoid. unfortunately, that is about 97% of the population. the other 3% are still a sketchy bunch. develop a front? put on a show? feign confidence? talk about things you aren't interested in? modulate your tone of voice? control your body language? it's all so contrived. and for those that this ******** impresses, it doesn't speak well for their potential to be introverted or even genuine. good luck! this is probably why i went five years after my first girlfriend and all the way through highschool without one date.