Just saw an interesting psychology article about conversation length. Apparently, when two people talk, both parties are happy with the length of the conversation a mere 2% of the time. Both wish the conversation could go on for longer 10% of the time. Much more commonly, one or both people think the conversation should have been shorter.
I would guess Covid has made this much worse, and that this data predates Covid.
I would also guess people like to hear themselves talk and are often terrible judges of assuming how much others want to listen.
The actual study asked people if during the conversation they thought there was an earlier point at which the conversation should have ended.
Conversations were probably longer than desired because it is unwise to tell the boss to shut up; and impolite to tell ones friends that they have talked about themselves quite enough, and without quite the personal fluency or wit residing in the perpendicular pronoun.
