Sorry for the back to back threads, but this has bothered me as well. If I'm in a group where there's at least three people total, I have no idea how to join the conversation unless someone says something to me directly and if I haven't spoken for a long time, it throws me off guard. With two people, I can usually figure out when to speak. I can figure out groups easier if I'm used to talking to the people involved one on one or if people talk to me directly.

There was a group my boyfriend would hang out with on Thursday nights. I would join them after I got off work, but I could rarely participate in the conversation because I didn't know what to say or when to say it. I would end up talking to him or just sitting there so he had a chance to talk to other people.

I've observed other people. It seems that one thing others do is just talk over other people or repeat themselves until others pay attention or something like that. That's just not something I'd want to do. I also don't know what to talk about (these are people I'm supposed to have things in common with), but I don't care about things that people talk about in casual conversations. I don't care for movies, I have a very narrow preference for TV shows, while I like some sports, I don't care about athletes or stats (well, not enough to contribute to a conversation), I don't talk about politics, and I don't really care that much about going to concerts and other things musicians should care about (we're all musicians). Topics that I would want to talk about wouldn't interest anyone else. My boyfriend sometimes, but other times I think he's just being nice or maybe he's used to it because his dad likes to talk about similar subjects.