Then they briefly acknowledge you before returning to whatever uninteresting topic they were already discussing

The fact that you call their topic uninteresting means you don’t care about others but expect them to care about you. That is you being self centered. You expect others to listen to your interests without first listening to theirs.

That means taking a real interest in their topic even if it’s something stupid like sports. If you don’t know enough to contribute the conversation that means you are learning something new- which is a good thing.

And just because you listened to them doesn’t mean they immediately owe you to listen to you.