>>4671I believe people prefer watching new shows due to a similar desire as your own, they want to talk about it with someone. New shows are easy for most people to agree on because you can be sure nobody has seen them till recently and they're in the public consciousness due to advertising and such. "Old" shows outnumber "new" shows by the thousands for obvious reasons, simply as a matter of numbers, if you watch shows with no regard for their recency/popularity the chances that any given person has also seen it recently and cares to talk about it is much lower.
If you watch anime to engage in discussion and make friends, your only shooting yourself in the foot if you refuse to engage even slightly with trends. If you choose to watch anime for its own sake, for the story/animation/music/whatever, then it shouldn't matter if you're the only person around who can appreciate it, because your enjoyment comes from the media itself, not from other people. Individuals who watch a lot of anime and try to appreciate it as art will be quick to dismiss this motivation because it isn't evaluating shows strictly for their own qualities, but rather is using it as a tool to a different ends in spite of it's actual content. However, most people consider friendship and good relations with others to be one of the most important things in life, so it makes sense they would be willing to compromise here and elsewhere.
I think the advice other posters have already added makes most sense if your sincerely disillusioned with the wider Internet's capacity to engage in these topics and you are unwilling to talk about trendy shows. In-person friendships usually provide more opportunities to genuinely influence one another's interests and behaviors, and you could conceivably convince someone in a relationship like that to watch more unpopular media. Don't forget however, that such relationships are a two way street, and real connections are built on trust, mutual commitment and often sacrifice.