I came to a sad realization recently: apparently in order to have friends I will need to pretend to be interested in people.
What made you come to that realization?
I noticed that no one wants to talk to me unless I pretend to be interested in the conversation.
It is normal for friends to be interested in each other and want to talk to one another. If you find that you don't care about your friends and are only pretending to be interested, that is not normal. Maybe you should consider why you care so little about them, and figure out how to empathize and care for them more.
I'm just not interested in the things they talk about.
Sometimes it's polite to feign interest but if you really never care about your friends or their interests that's a problem. It's not honest to always pretend that your interested in other people and it won't make you happy in the long run.