It depends - I've met awesome people (I wrote a post about a points kid Noah in our LIM-JFK flight), nervous flier from PHL-Houston who talked entire time about homesteading because he had dream plane would crash - I tried to share cookies for him to stop talking it didn't work. I had a guy in my first class seat that said "can I sit with my friend" and I was too tired to argue with rude people so sat in his seat with a lovely woman on her way home to an aging parent - she used to work for Pan Am so we had fun and sad flight from SEA-PHL.
on BA the divider in CW has saved me from talking
I used to waitress and was a volunteer VIP guest services person for local film festival so am used to chatting with folks so not a big deal unless I have my headphones on