hmm. I think people expect their friends to do some posting about their life or interests on (our current) social networks - so they implicitly have permission

hmm. I think people expect their friends to do some posting about their life or interests on (our current) social networks - so they implicitly have permission to do so. We don't expect our friends to immediately start talking about themselves in-person, but I do think we expect our friends to talk about themselves and what's going on in their lives - it would be pretty shallow friendships if we only talked about the weather or the news headlines. Most good conversationalists are good at it because they explicitly draw the other person into talking about themselves and their interests. Whether things become narcissistic is more a factor of personality I think. Perhaps its more than that, though. A good conversationalist would steer the conversation to more interesting content - ie why he person is passionate about their hobby rather than just talking about their accomplishments. Perhaps we need to think about social network features that model what good conversationalists do? Not sure what that looks like though. [edit for typo]