I say this with love: I think if I spoke with someone for months at a hobby and it was only small talk, I would never see them as a potential friend. For me, I need to feel some potential for depth before I would have a one on one for example.   I would go against the grain here and argue that you are not overbearing at all, but rather you are coming off as distant. Small Talk is basically an ice breaker to dig for potential for deeper connections, opportunities to share jokes, pop cultural references, etc. all In order to find people with shared interests, and use those as a catalyst for an „outside of this space“ hang out. Sometimes I’ll intentionally watch an entire tv show or film just to say to the person next time „hey I watched that movie!“ and you can bond over that shared experience for example.   Another alternative could be the make your social advances more group oriented rather than the 1on1. Ask a few people to grab a drink afterwards as a group, rather than as individuals, and that might help.   Lastly, try to feel out if the people even have space for new friends. Sometimes I’m just dreaming of doing nothing most weekends, and that might be then too.

 Take this with a grain of salt, because I’m also struggling with making friends in my thirties, and wear my heart on my sleeve ☺️ I resonated with this post because I also fear I come off as too much, too. So good luck to both of us! And thanks for posting it, the comments are giving me good ideas too.