Do you get tired of people asking "How are you"?

[Konigin]

Almost always tell them how I feel if they ask, rarely just fine or ok...

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: ndee
It's called being nice.

bullsh!t. you guys are, sorry to say, less than intelligent if you cant see how useless this phrase is. it is a waste of everyones oxygen to ask meaningless questions like this. most of the time, do you think the person asking really gives a crap? not really. so what if its called being nice. i would rather someone not ask me a question that they dont care what the answer is instead of pretending to care. essentially what it comes down to is being fake. might be a long shot, but think about it for a second. you typically talk to people that you arent related to in some way all the time, and usually you dont talk to them just to "be nice"...you want/need something done. why not just skip right to it instead of all the bullcrap at the beginning that wastes time. when people dont say thanks after everything you do, do you get upset? if you do, you need to grow up and realize its not going out of you way to help people sometimes and saying thanks gets annoying if you do it every 10 seconds - not to mention, it also loses some of its affect (effect?). anyways, i understand what syringer is saying because it also gets on my nerves sometimes.

I think your post was a waste of oxygen. "How are you?" "Fine, thanks." Done. Not too much of an oxygen-waster.

 

[guapo337]

"What's up" and "How are you?" have turned into simple greetings similar to "hello" and "hi".

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: CTrain
If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than people asking "How are you?", thats pretty sad.
There are definately more things in life to worry about than people asking "How are you?"
I don't think at any point in my 32yrs that I gave a second thought to if "How are you?" bugs me or not.

If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than what bothers me, that's pretty sad.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: MacBaine
Some of us enjoy living in a civilized society.

That is the conclusion I came to. I do not know about other people, I am sincere when I ask a person how they are doing,

 

[NeoPTLD]

Do those of you who work customer service on the phone get annoyed about having to make a blatently false statement, "Thank You for calling...."
?

 

[LongCoolMother]

its courtesy. no different from saying "hello" or "what's up". its more of a gesture more than anything.

 

[CTrain]

Originally posted by: Syringer

Originally posted by: CTrain
If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than people asking "How are you?", thats pretty sad.
There are definately more things in life to worry about than people asking "How are you?"
I don't think at any point in my 32yrs that I gave a second thought to if "How are you?" bugs me or not.

If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than what bothers me, that's pretty sad.

Who said that it bothers me that "How are you?" bothers you ??
You stated this on a public forum in which you are getting an opinion from me.

I work at a restaurant and I greet people by asking "How are you?" each and every time.
I would estimate that more than 90% are shocked that someone asked them that and react with a smile and some type of answer.
Its called common courtesy.
It beats a plain...."May I help you" any day.

Like I said, If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than people asking "How are you?", thats pretty sad.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: Syringer
I mean, what is the point? People are just going to expect you to say "good" or "fine" or one of those generic type responses, they don't expect any sort of real answer out of you..and my view of them is that they're simply asking out of pure obligation, not because they care how I'm doing.

Do you ever come up with a non-generic response to that question, or come up with a less generic type of greeting?

You need to reduce your caffeine intake. You are way to irritable for you own good. I recommend that you save your indignation and anger for something important like the African AIDS pandemic or world hunger.

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: CTrain

Originally posted by: Syringer

Originally posted by: CTrain
If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than people asking "How are you?", thats pretty sad.
There are definately more things in life to worry about than people asking "How are you?"
I don't think at any point in my 32yrs that I gave a second thought to if "How are you?" bugs me or not.

If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than what bothers me, that's pretty sad.

Who said that it bothers me that "How are you?" bothers you ??
You stated this on a public forum in which you are getting an opinion from me.

I work at a restaurant and I greet people by asking "How are you?" each and every time.
I would estimate that more than 90% are shocked that someone asked them that and react with a smile and some type of answer.
Its called common courtesy.
It beats a plain...."May I help you" any day.

Like I said, If you have nothing in life that bothers you more than people asking "How are you?", thats pretty sad.

If you interpret my posting a thread as it bothering me, then I can interpret your reply to my response as it bothering you.

The fact that you greet complete strangers "how are you" all the time just shows that the phrase is completely overused, and lacks any sort of meaning toward it.

 

[Ikonomi]

I went through this phase when I was 17, and resolved to tell anyone who asked me "How are you?" exactly how I was, which was probably angsty or something.

I forgot about it in a month.

It's just a pleasantry; there's really nothing wrong with it. Think of it, instead of as a waste of oxygen, as an extended greeting that's tacked onto the end of "hi" or "hello." There are a billion other colloquialisms in the English language to criticize. You shouldn't spend so much energy on one that's actually pleasant!

 

[MrDudeMan]

lol you guys think those of us that dont like this phrase are getting all worked up. i dont visibily get angry/upset/whatever when someone says it to me. i just dont respond with any type of drawn out answer because i know they dont care.

so you think i dont like to be with other people and have personal relationships with friends? i love hanging out with people...its one of the best things to do with free time. you are completely misconstruing the point of my initial post. i just dont like how people dont care when they ask. if people meant it and wanted to know about your day, then why would i get annoyed at that? thats right, i wouldnt. many things annoy many people on different levels. this just happens to be something that annoys me.

and ndee, sure its simple and nice, but a simple hello works just as well. if you think someone is being rude when they say hello, then you have some issues.

 

[CTrain]

Well, geez....you made a thread titled Do you get tired of people asking "How are you"?
You must have issue with it or why else would you make a thread about it ??

 

[NickelTitanium]

How are you guys today?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I always give a truthful response, which catches people pff guard.

 

[Growltiger]

Originally posted by: NickelTitanium
How are you guys today?

Ok, but a little constipated.

Well, you did ask.

 

[AmericasTeam]

I work at a store and I probably say "How are you?" and hear it said to me about 50 times a day.
Does it mean anything? Not really.

As others had stated, its just something added to "hi" or "hello".

I notice when asking a women they usually look at me, smile, and say thanks for asking.
I work in the City (SF) and sometimes men do the same thing. That makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

 

I always answer that question with "no"

 

[StinkyPinky]

Most of my customers usually just say "Hey". I just say "hey" back. But then again, most of them are high school kids.

 

[Sid59]

my professor had a big rant about this. cracked up the whole class. of course this was advanced converstational spanish, so it was harder for us to prove and explain things. he had some valid points. the type of professors who disagrees just for conversation.

 

[nativesunshine]

i don't get sick of being asked...

but sometimes i wish i had better things to say than "good", "fine", "ok"....

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: ndee
It's called being nice.

bullsh!t. you guys are, sorry to say, less than intelligent if you cant see how useless this phrase is. it is a waste of everyones oxygen to ask meaningless questions like this. most of the time, do you think the person asking really gives a crap? not really. so what if its called being nice. i would rather someone not ask me a question that they dont care what the answer is instead of pretending to care. essentially what it comes down to is being fake. might be a long shot, but think about it for a second. you typically talk to people that you arent related to in some way all the time, and usually you dont talk to them just to "be nice"...you want/need something done. why not just skip right to it instead of all the bullcrap at the beginning that wastes time. when people dont say thanks after everything you do, do you get upset? if you do, you need to grow up and realize its not going out of you way to help people sometimes and saying thanks gets annoying if you do it every 10 seconds - not to mention, it also loses some of its affect (effect?). anyways, i understand what syringer is saying because it also gets on my nerves sometimes.

I agree with one thing you say... One of us is less than intelligent...

 

[MisterPants]

Don't make a habit of commenting on things like that. People get annoyed easily by any response that is atypical of the average person and typical of the speaker.

I think it's really that people get annoyed when they are having a conversation that plays out exactly as they'd expect it to -- they might as well have not spoken to anybody at all and written an imaginary conversation. Eventually, the "sup?" "nothing" and "how are you?" "fine" conversations stop annoying them -- they get numb. If you, like all other people, are fairly predictable, but you don't say the same things, you're predictable enough to be annoying but people don't speak to you enough to get numb.