While I’m talking about social stuff I had to learn as an autistic person
There’s a LOT of social interactions between human beings whose purpose really boils down to being like that thing dogs do where they go “omg YOU’RE a dog??? I’M a dog!!!!!” And that’s not a bad thing. Highly ritualized “meaningless” displays of human connection like friendly greetings and talking about things like weather actually do serve a purpose which is like idk ritualized displays birds do. YOU’RE a human? Omg I’M a human!!!! Wow!!!
And they don’t have to be your favorite flavor of interaction. You can even think they’re silly. But they DO serve a purpose or else they wouldn’t be a thing.
There’s lots of good and folksy responses to “how are you doing” that don’t involve either lying or undermining the ritualized purpose of the greeting exchange, too. My great grandmother Ethel for example was a big fan of “well, I’m a-doin’”
“Things like ‘How are you?’ and 'Have a nice day’ and 'What do you think of the weather, then?’ What these sounds mean is: I am alive and so are you.”
- Wings, by Terry Pratchett.
It sounds so cute when you put it this way
