Getting to know new people: are you meant to just say stuff about you/your life, or wait until they ask?

I’ve noticed over the last few years that when I meet new people and I’m in a getting to know them stage (and sussing out of they’re a potential friend or not), so many people just talk about themselves. I met a girl on my holiday and we shared a taxi, I thought she seemed really really lovely but then I realised as we talked she basically just talked about herself the whole journey and only did the whole ‘what about you?’ thing a couple of times. So I ended up feeling like ‘oh just another one of those people who couldn’t give a sh*t about anyone else but themselves. But maybe I was wrong?

I find it hard making new connections in general but this sort of thing just puts me off people even more. I have close friends and most of the conversations we have are not one sided at all. Been friends with them so long I can’t remember what our conversations were like when we first met but I definitely remember feeling like they took an interest in my life and we would talk for hours.

I do have a tendency to people please, I’m more of a listener than a talker but that comes down to social awkwardness and I over worry that I’m boring people by talking about myself.

So now I’m wondering, is it me? Am I the one being weird, like am I meant to be offering up random pieces of information about myself to keep the conversation going (in the context of getting to know a new person)? I always thought it was more of a selfish thing to do and that if you’re having a conversation you let it flow naturally and if the other person wanted to know about your life, they would ask, they would say their thing and then be like ‘what about you?’ or ask you about something else for half of the conversation.

So which is it meant to be? 😭