Very interresting topic.
Since I had the same problems but that will be a long text.
If you want I can write down my own life experience.
It seems you lack empathy, no offense (what I lacked myselve alot when I was younger).
Empathy is the ability to put yourselve in some others place. After you learn that, life will get much easier.
I suggest you try to learn this single skill at first. It is the most easy skill to be learned in a social society.
As for the silent part: Remaining silent is not a bad thing, unless you keep silent all the time.
If you add a sentence like: "Let me think about it" or "I do not know anything about that". It would be a good start to let people know you listened to them and you are not bored by what they say.
It is not a conversations if only one of the participants is talking.
After that you can go on to more advanced topics, for example:
- Reading peoples body language
- Learning what is important to you (in other words your mindset but that's a much more complex topic), becouse it allows you to have conversations about topics that interrest you and seem to be boring to others
- Learning whats in trend right now
- Building up activities you can also share with others (mathematics is a mindes, swimming is an activity everyone is interrested in)
- Learning and building up your social status (being able to repair a car has much values for a society, and if your able you even entertain people while you repair something you can earn money with it)
- Learning psychological topics, like rhetorics, complimenting etc.
- Learning to get teased and being funny about it
- Learning that you did a mistake