There is a piece today on the Wired How-To Wiki about making small talk, i.e., how it is done.
I don’t know if forgetting how to interact with others verbally is a creeping social problem related to our immersion in online, written (or at least, non-personal) communication forms, or if it is a long-standing problem for the target demographic of Wired magazine, and since all other reporting (about every other topic imagineable) is being covered, they have space for this tutorial.
You be the judge. And practice up if you want to talk with someone about it.