How Are You? The Most Meaningless Question

You have probably either greeted someone or someone greeted you today, and the how are you question was asked.

Many people seem to have forgotten or are not cognisant of the fact that, how are you is a question. It has become a form of greeting that can be equated to a mere hi.

This has also been prompted by the generic response to this question whenever it's asked, where 90% of the time, the response is either a fine or good.

This question and its responses have become automatic gestures which are a part of our socialisation. You find yourself greeting someone and asking "How are you?" without even a single care about how they really are. They also automatically respond with "I'm fine" without really considering that they have been asked a question.

Sometimes you do feel the question, but knowing that the person asking how I am does not care or will be of no help even if I am not okay, there is no point in being honest about how I feel. Then we resort to the generic, socially acceptable answer: fine.

All this renders the "how are you" question to be really meaningless, and basically makes it unnecessary to be asked. Unless you really care. And realistically, most people do not care.

So, next time someone asks you how you are after greeting you, be cognisant that that question is likely meaningless. How you respond to it is irrelevant to the person asking it.

Even when it comes to you, before you ask someone else how they are, do you really care? Or are you merely exercising the social expectation of acknowledging the next person with a greeting?