<human>: Give me a shortened version of the text

Hey there! Just hoping for some advice about what to do here, as this situation is starting to frustrate me a little. 

So I started talking to one of my old friends again recently. We haven't hung out a lot as of late, but we'll go through periods where we text a lot. This was all good and well, as I liked talking to him and was excited to rekindle our friendship. 

But a pattern has emerged. After the initial pleasantries ("how was your day?", "what are you up to?", "how's the boyfriend?", etc), he asks me "so what do you want to talk about?" 

This was nice for a little while, but this happens all the time now, and frankly, I don't know what I want to talk about anymore. I've tried turning it around and saying "I don't know, is there anything you want to talk about?", but he always replies with "you choose" or something along those lines. 

I would get this if he didn't really want to talk to me or if I was texting him, but he's the one who texts first most of the time. It's making conversation really awkward, to the point I sometimes find an excuse to stop talking for a bit. When I do try and keep up the conversation, I've started turning to the internet for conversation ideas, which doesn't really work. 

What can I do to stop this awkward conversation cycle?
<bot>: My friend texts me, always asks me what I want to talk about, but apparently has no conversational ideas of his own. Help making it less awkward?