Pet peeve #100 (it's not #1, but it does deserve a distinct number): People who ask "How Are You?" when they are passing you in the hall way.
OK. You pass someone that you know in the hall way. You make eye contact. You each say "Hello", and then one of you says "How are you?" Typically, as you pass the person asked has time to say "Good" or "Fine" or some other meaningless short answer. The respondent usually doesn't have time to return the inquiry, because the parties have passed each other.
The question really is meaningless. Usually the person asking doesn't REALLY want to know. The respondent both knows this and doesn't want to create an awkward social situation by giving a longer, if more truthful, answer (by offering perhaps, "I've been sick all week." or "Fantastic! I got laid last night.")
When I actually speak to a friend that I haven't talked to in a while, if one of us asked the other "How are you" we do so because we actually care about the answer. The respondent usually gives an answer more closely approximating reality.
I wish people would not casually throw out the question "How are you?" when they really don't care, and they really don't feel like taking the time to stop to find out.
Next up: Those statements people make at someone who has just sneezed.
1 comment:
I like it. It's the equivalent of dogs sniffing butts when they run into each other. It's just a simple acknowledgement of your existence -- "Hi fellow human, I have noticed you". It's not really meant to have semantic import, other than recognition.
I'd rather we kept any gestures that keep us together, no matter how meaningless.
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