There's arguments for apps like Twitter as well but I think most of those use cases could easily be handled through things like notifications services to let me know something has happened.
If the person's not physically well enough to do a lot of talking, ask if they'd like to hear a story about something that happened at work, or saying, 'Would you like meto read a story to you?
The night before, I had fallen onto the floor in my sleep, something that hadn't happened since I'd first graduated from a crib to a bed and to prevent me from rolling out of it my parents had to set a pair of kitchen chairs at the side of the mattress.
But every so often something happens that crosses the boundary between personal mishap to topic-worth-discussing, and such a thing happenedtome last night.