I (f27) have been recently integrated into a group of girl friends. They are all very lovely and kind, and I have enjoyed getting to know them all little by little. I noticed though, that when we are all hanging out, I am the quietest one in the room. I think its partly a comfortability thing since they've all known each other a bit longer, but sometimes I feel completely lost in the conversation. Like sometimes they will talk about a celebrity whose the son of another celebrity for example, and I don't know who either of them is, let alone that they have a relationship to each other. Another example is we were talking about alcoholic drinks, and while I had had the drink before, everyone else knew what specific brand of that alcohol they liked, what brands were more authentic, etc. There was one topic we talked about that I did feel knowledgeable about, but the rest of the night I felt like I didn't really have anything to chime in. I also do not have social media which is probably somewhat why I feel like this, but I try to read the news when I can. I should also add that I work a lot (50ish hours a week) so when I have downtime its usually spent offline.
Basically, what I'm getting at is that I often feel lost in conversation, and like I don't have much to chime in. I realize that some people just have their specific niches and you cannot be knowledgeable on everything, but how do you learn about relevant topics/people/etc. without being chronically online/on social media?