How are you today?

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Why, do you think he's cutting into your action?

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Is it just me, or............

Nah, probably not.

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I agree in part. 'How are you today' has always seemed like an empty question, with the asker indeed having no genuine interest in your wellbeing. (This is perhaps a harsh generalized statement and more applicable to people serving you in coffee shops or stopping you in the street to get you to sign up to a particular charity etc.) But most times it is asked people are not expecting you to respond with a full inventory of your aches and pains. They are looking for a, 'fine thank you.'

However, I think this has changed somewhat during the era of Covid. Now when a person asks 'how are you today?' there is more likely to be a genuine interest in the answer, with us all having gone through similar experiences over the last year and a half.

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I used exactly this question earlier today to enquire as to the latest condition of my two close friends here who have COVID.

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In my social life the question more often than not elicits pertinent or even valuable information; the person being asked can divulge whatever they want.

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I am not ignoring anything. Nor am I a doctor. I don't see anything wrong with the expression "How are you?" It can be used in a shallow way or itcan be used in a non- shallow way. It depends on who uses it and why.

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Doctors v Telemarketers.

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Talking of "banal", this hyperbolic generalization is absurd.