Advice for Dealing with Overly-Talkative Roomate?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I'm an college sophomore living in a suite-style dorm on campus. I have three roomates, two of which I am close friends with.</p>

<p>One roomate, the one whose door is right next to mine, is an extreme extrovert. She is a TALKER. She literally doesn't know what to do with herself when she isn't talking to someone.</p>

<p>I on the other hand, am introverted. I like to socialize, but only a bit each day at classes and events. I really like, and need, to have my time to myself. I usually like to watch a show or two in my dorm room.</p>

<p>The problem is that my roomate ALWAYS wants to talk when we are both there. And honestly, these "conversations" are entirely one-sided. She will go off on any trivial tangent as long as I nod and smile.</p>

<p>We are friends, but she's driving me crazy! At the beginning of the year, I locked my door from the inside and have kept it that way since. Lately, she has been getting really annoyed about the locked door. I've tried to explain that I'm not as big a talker as she, but she doesn't seem to understand. She thinks that her level of sociability is normal, and that I am just "isolating" myself.</p>

<p>For the record, my other roomate who is also good friends with the talkative roomate has also locked her door from the inside. I asked her why once and she just looked at me and said "you know why." So I don't think I'm being unreasonable.</p>

<p>This talkative roomate is very sensitive to critiscm. She said she didn't really have any close friends before college and that I am her first "true friend." I'm wary of hurting her feelings and I don't know how to tell her that her that she is driving me insane and just needs to shut up.</p>

<p>Advice?</p>

<p>~CollegeGal</p>

2

<p>My situation is kind of similar to yours. I’m in a triple and one of my roommates is fine and mostly keeps to himself, and we’ll strike up a conversation every now and then. My other roommate is a big sports buff (I am too, but I don’t go overboard talking about it) and he’s a huge Facebook/Twitter addict (mostly Twitter). Whenever I’m in the room, attempting to do some work or even just surf the web, he’ll start laughing about something funny he read on Twitter, and then he’ll be like, “Dude, so __________________” and he’ll proceed to tell me everything he read. It was fine the first few times, but he has this natural tendency to just say every darn thing he sees or reads. He’s not a mean guy or anything, and we’re pretty good friends, but he just talks a lot and I do that normal head nod or fake laugh to pretend that I’m interested.</p>

<p>You know what you should do? Whatever you like to do in your dorm, just do it somewhere else. There’s a small study room in the middle of our floor and I always go there to get work done or even just chill on my laptop without being near him. Other times, I’ll go to the library or even my neighbor’s room, because I’m really close to him and we both can chill quietly together. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t easily confront people about stuff, so I’m not the type to just go up to him and say, “Dude, I’m trying to get some work done.” Otherwise, maybe just confront her about it in a nice way and if she doesn’t change, I’d suggest just going somewhere else.</p>