As a kid that used be the question that made me panic. Some teacher or parent would ask “What’s up?” In a casual manner and I would just freeze. To this day I have no idea what the proper response is. I assume it isn’t to start talking about orbits.
As a kid that used be the question that made me panic. Some teacher or parent would ask “What’s up?” In a casual manner and I would just freeze. To this day I have no idea what the proper response is. I assume it isn’t to start talking about orbits.
Just reply, “hello.” If they want more information, they will ask for it. Usually they don’t, and then you’re free from social anxiety.
If they ask, “how are you?” “how’s it going?” etc. I always reply with, “never better!” which can come across as sarcastic but in my experience not in a way that makes anyone feel like I’m being a dick. If it does, we probably don’t function on the same wavelength and they don’t ask again, so nothing is lost socially for either of us. And, since I might actually be feeling never better, it’s not lying in that case; whereas, if I have felt better then it is sarcastic, and not dishonest because most people already clock that answer as sarcasm and don’t follow up with any additional questions.
On the rare occasion when they do follow up with, “what’s wrong?” or similar, I feel they’ve opened up the floodgates and I vent my frustration or go into detail on things most people don’t seem to want technical details on. They usually don’t do that more than once, but the people who do tend to become friends.