First of all, these people are probably novices. For people who come to the gym for the first time, it is not really the first time to go to the gym. Because many equipments are unfamiliar and don't know how to operate, they will be unclear about some fitness precautions, and they need to communicate with the relevant person in charge of the gym before they really get into fitness next time.
Secondly, in the gym, there will always be many people who are eager to go to the gym without a card. At this time, they will carefully observe whether the facilities in the gym are complete and novel, and whether the fitness instructors are professional, which are all of their great concern. So these people are naturally chatting instead of exercising, and you will find several people whispering in a pile. In fact, they are "shopping around" to discuss whether they really do the card.
Finally, as mentioned above, more and more people are keen to go to the gym to get a card, which has become a trend. However, many people don't really want to go to the gym, but go with the flow and just want to pretend to take pictures and send them to friends to force them. So these people don't want to exercise at all They just join in the fun by going to the gym, so it is normal to see these people just chatting and not exercising.