Asking if people are intelligent in my mind is highly insulting, but I will bite about creating interesting conversation on here. It may be long winded, but hey this is my first real contributing post so I am full off contributions. LOL!
The topic is mostly irrelevant. The key to a good conversation is to listen, and, when listening, to draw connections between what the other other party says and other interesting things.You'll wind up talking anyhow, so you don't need to concentrate on that so much. If you constantly listen to and engage the other person, they'll actually be involved, and they'll open up to you, and a good conversation will descend upon you in a thud of surprise.
Most would agree that it's not the topic, but for a group in a quiet/slow board setting like this maybe I would ask "What's your paradigm?" Hey. It's a fun start. (Then everyone can post and explain briefly what measuring stick they judge themselves/life by.) It's pretty awesome, especially if there are any philosophy majors and/or debate types around.
I agree that all subjects are (or can be) equally deep. The question is how do you drive topic X from superficial to something deeper?
I also don't think any conversation is really superficial. If the text is light, the the subtext is probably deep -- and vice versa. I take it this question is about how to drive OVERT conversation (the non-subtext part) towards depth. Okay, well, most non-deep conversations are opinion polls: you like that band? Me too! You guys are nuts, that band sucks. Aw, you're crazy, it's great! You know what band I like...?
You have to get beyond that. One of the ways you can do so is to turn polls into occasions for storytelling: You really like that band? Well, did you ever hear them play live? I did, and guess what happened...? That one song of theirs reminds me of the first girl I ever kissed. It was in 5th grade and..
Storytelling is the sort of depth that takes place in most everyday, man-on-the-street conversations. Many people are uncomfortable with talk that is more philosophical/intellectual ("Is there gonna be a quiz after this?"), but if you're in the right group there you can move the conversation towards essays rather than stories.To do so, steer away from polls and towards WHY. Why do you think we all like the same sort of music? Why do people listen to music? Try counterfactuals: what would the world be like without music? If band x and y got together, what sort of music would they make?Try psychology: how does this music make you feel? Why do you think it makes you feel that way?Try history: what music did your parents listen to? Why do you think it's not popular any more? How did it lead to the music we listen to today?
I think the key issue here is doing some research into cars and sports, politics, sex, eroticism, or anything else that you want to talk about so that you can be provocative and foster those conversations. Otherwise, an apparently deep topic will always end up being just as, if not more banal, than the topics that you are currently finding tedious. If you start something without a vague idea of how the issue lays out you are in danger of letting things easily fall flat. If you don't have some viable understanding for why x relates to y and you offer it as a conversation starter than why shouldn't everyone just stare at you blankly?
To make this board interesting maybe we should look around around for writing and research on sports, or ejaqulation, orgasms, tantra, fetishes, or whatever, that takes in the banal points you're losing interest in and relates them to more expansive problem of social relevance. You don’t want to be pedantic with all sorts of useless facts at your finger tips. You do want to have a sense of what the issues are and where the controversy lies. Then, when your friends venture into the relevant area you can not only drop interesting questions in but you can also keep the conversation up with various interesting points that only further complicate things. Then posters may surprise you with their ability to make less than interesting detail entirely relevant to a much more complicated topic.
Once you do this I suspect two things will likely emerge, some of your board aquaintances will be keen to join these conversations and welcome your efforts while another group will find it annoying and not want to talk about ‘serious’ things. The latter group will actively undermine your efforts to have a more involved conversation and you shouldn’t take offense. They might want things to stay the same because that’s what they like and it’s your problem if you were/are unsatisfied.
Just do not alienate people by asking basically is there a smart person in the room. Me thinks your right about the board being flat but me also thinks you need to learn to be more assertive in how you start your conversation threads. Good luck in your quest for a more hopping board. I also share that goal.
Sincerely,
Brainless in SC
