I learned my lesson with small talk many years ago..
I was sitting at a table when a young female approached. She kind of had this "look" in her eye? But i couldn't figure it out.
Well.. She introduced herself and said for some strange reason
"I hate sitting by myself", and just started chattering away about any and everything..At first, i was irritated, but then relaxed, and we had a rapport.
A group of people came over, and you know what happened? She quickly turned away from me, and started chattering away with her group as if i wasn't even there..
An older lady of the group tried to be polite, and asked:
"Hey, aren't you going to introduce us to your new friend."
That chick didn't even turn around to look at me, she just said:
"Nah, she was just someone to talk to until you guys showed up..
There are some people that use small talk as a connection? And there are others that just have nothing else better to do, so they talk out of plain old boredom..
Needless to say, i felt pretty "used and thrown away" after that happened..