One topic man

For years, I used to pride myself on being able to talk to pretty much anyone on a variety of topics and having a reasonably lively conversation. I’ve always loved conversing – I get that from both my parents. However, over the past few years, I have noticed a bothersome trend: a growing number of acquaintances (not friends/family) with whom I seem to only have one topic conversations. Presently, I have a restaurant-review acquaintance, a small-child-of-similar-age-in-common acquaintance, an NFL-talk acquaintance, a Mexico vacation acquaintance and a PGA Tour golf acquaintance, to name a few. If we aren’t discussing THE topic, then we are simply saying hi and going on with our day (or in some cases, making fairly painful small talk about another topic neither of us care much about).

So my question is this: is this one topic problem a sign of my dwindling social skills, a product of my environment, me maturing and realizing I don’t need to engage everyone all the time – or is this just the realization that adult socializing is way more awkward as an adult (sans Pabst of course) than I thought it would be when I was younger?