Long story short, I’ve felt like an interviewer on multiple occasions. Once, a date even said so almost nervously. Didn’t kill the date but didn’t end it even halfway towards where I wanted. Looking back I could have just thanked her for saying it out loud and then used that to get more genuinely personal. In doing so I just stayed “stuck” in my feeling of pressure to lead the conversation. When the bug strikes it goes like this: I ask questions obviously. If the answer interests me I ask more. We talk but then when things slow I just look for other things of interest and end up asking about that next thing. Open ended. Yes, no, to open ended. Doesn’t matter bc in the end “21 questions” is 21 questions, open or not, in my experience. Yes I learn but I’m sure you can see the negative aspect of this too.

My main question here is for anyone who has actually dealt with this in some way: What does this represent to you?

and/or

Is there something that’s usually a missing ingredient to enjoying time when this happens often? I can honestly say even though I want a person to feel free to open up, I don’t just enjoy questions so much that I do this. It’s a “thing”