Psychology says people who can't be bothered with small talk aren't rude or antisocial - they're protecting a mental bandwidth that gets drained by conversations designed to perform connection instead of create it - Silicon Canals

"Cognitive Load Theory posits that working memory has a hard cap, limiting the number of items it can process at once. When demands exceed this capacity, focus and decision-making deteriorate."

"Small talk is almost pure extraneous load, requiring effort to process social cues and formulate responses while providing minimal informational value, leading to cognitive fatigue."

"The brain is working hard during small talk, but it is not engaging with anything meaningful, resulting in a sense of exhaustion from the interaction."

Cognitive Load Theory suggests that working memory has a limited capacity, affecting focus and decision-making when overloaded. Small talk is primarily extraneous load, requiring significant cognitive resources to manage social cues and responses without delivering valuable content. This leads to mental fatigue, as the brain expends energy on interactions that yield little return. Additionally, self-regulation in social situations can further tax cognitive resources, compounding the feeling of exhaustion during seemingly simple conversations.

Read at Silicon Canals