Whenever someone has to highlight the fact that when they’re telling a story from 30 years ago or longer, that they ‘didn’t have smartphones’. Like yeah, I don’t expect someone from 1995 to have such a device and the closest things you’ve got were PDAs.
I just know it’s going to be some old boomer like story that’ll bore me.
If someone starts the story by saying “I had a dream last night”, I know it’s going to be a long account of something totally nonsensical that I will be utterly uninterested in, that will not teach me anything of value, amaze me or amuse be in any way.
Depending on how much I care about not antagonizing that person, I might walk away without saying a word, lash out at them to shut them the hell up immediately, or politely listen while quietly escaping to my happy place in my mind while the torture lasts.
There are few things I hate more than people wasting my time telling me their dreams.
That’s because it’s almost always a poor retelling.
When someone talks about their dreams, they’re biased; to them, it’s already profound. But to you, it sounds like a disconnected infodump because, well, it usually is.
Is this a testament to the importance of writing skill, or insurmountable bias? I suppose a hobbyist writer would have a better chance at keeping one compelled.
Here’s my favorite example of better dream storytelling: tumblr