I appreciate the work they do, and I'm not rude to them, but I don't need them making conversation with me or saying anything other than taking my order and making sure I have everything I need. The exception might be if I have kids with me, then if they do something to entertain the kids that's fine.

The best situation would also be to get rid of tipping altogether. Just charge me enough to pay servers a proper wage. If the server doesn't do a good job the manager can handle it, not the customer. Giving performance based pay shouldn't be the responsibility of the customer.