What does it mean to "hold the frame" of a conversation?

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This is a picture with a very strong frame:

Ain’t nothing getting out of that!

This is one that refuses to stay in the frame:

Clearly an irrelephant frame

In a conversation, framing doesn’t just happen. Both parties subconsciously agree on it, or the conversation will drift outside of the frame and you can find yourself talking about damn near anything.

If you have a particular goal in mind with the interaction, then going out of the framing you’ve carefully set up rarely helps you achieve that goal. On the other hand, it often leads to more interesting conversation, as Mr Elephant teaches us.

Hold the frame or consciously allow it to drift. Otherwise you start sounding like a stoner who can’t keep a coherent train of thought.