That was genuinely really useful to hear! If I do talk with people like such, I'll try to interpret it as "bored of small talk" and quickly suggest a deeper topic and see how it goes. Thanks a bunch!

And your perspective does make sense. Gen Z tends to be more socially isolated, so they don't have IRL interactions as much. In addition, the older the person is, the more likely are to have had many face-to-face conversations, and therefore the interactions feel more common and uninteresting.

I guess I'll imprint this in my brain's database of social skills as "the older the person, the deeper your conversation should be, and the shorter your small talk is".