Interesting that there are 25 comments here and none mentioning narcissism. Our modern world was already in an epidemic of narcissism before social media and s

Interesting that there are 25 comments here and none mentioning narcissism. Our modern world was already in an epidemic of narcissism before social media and since then things have only accelerated. Like the author, I have also noticed that it is somewhat more common with men talking to women and I wonder why. I see a number of people here saying that they are non-askers or that being a non-asker is a good thing and I think many of them aren't quite understanding the author's definition of non-asker. To me, if we have a conversation and I ask you two things and the conversation devolves into a random subject, that is totally fine. On the other hand, if I'm having a conversation and it's a "questions" conversation - getting to know you, catching up about our kids, discussing our startups etc - and you don't ask a single question then that is very weird. Picture this: we're both parents, my Timmy and your Jones were friends before we moved away. For an hour I've asked questions and heard all about your Jones but you didn't ask a thing about my Timmy. Or: we're students working on our internships, catching up, I've asked all about your internship and how it's going and you just don't care about mine. Or: we're strangers flirting in a bar and I've asked all about you but you haven't asked a thing about me. In all those circumstances I am going to get the (almost always correct!) feeling that you don't care about me. If we're just talking about sports, or politics, or hiking or whatever then there is no need to ask personal questions, but if it's a context where the whole point is personal questions, and a question is reasonably expected, then it's pretty weird if it never comes.