Recently I was with some friends when I got a text message from a male suitor who I had no interest in. "How was your day?" it read.
"Ugh", I groaned. "I hate people who ask how your day was."
Now, most of my companions rolled their eyes at my absurd and typical bitchiness. But in my defense, this really is a pointless question, usually asked either for the sake of sheer politeness (which, as I've grown older, I've come to view as acceptable, especially in a business setting), or because the asker simply lacks any real social skills.
I mean, think about it. Anyone who knows anything about you and actually cares what your response is to whatever they might ask is going to be specific: "How was your date last night?" or "Did you take your client to that new restaurant" or "Is your boss being a psycho today?". I suppose "How are you" or "How was your day" COULD be a lead in question (again, especially as we get older and tend to be more civilized), but no one who is actually your friend is going to make that the reason for a text message. People who are in your life ask questions that actually pertain to your life.
More importantly, this question doesn't LEAD to anything. ESPECIALLY via text. The response will most likely be a one word answer, and leaves the asker with nothing to say but "oh". And there's tons of stupid questions with this same dynamic that people ask ALL the time:
"Where are you from?"
"Connecticut"
"Oh"
or
"What's your major?"
"Psychology"
"Oh" (Although I must say, "Oh" is much preferable to people voicing their stupid misconceptions about the field: "Oh, what am I thinking RIGHT NOW?", or "You're hanging out in a good place, we're all crazy here, haha". Ugh!)
Come on people! Don't you have ANYTHING interesting to say? I know we've all been told that asking questions is the key to being a good conversationalist, but first you need to actually HAVE conversation that is ABOUT something - preferably something that is interesting to both parties. I'm not opposed to starting conversations with questions on principal, but at least ask questions that are fun to answer and will actually spark a dialogue. Duh!
More importantly, this question doesn't LEAD to anything. ESPECIALLY via text. The response will most likely be a one word answer, and leaves the asker with nothing to say but "oh". And there's tons of stupid questions with this same dynamic that people ask ALL the time:
"Where are you from?"
"Connecticut"
"Oh"
or
"What's your major?"
"Psychology"
"Oh" (Although I must say, "Oh" is much preferable to people voicing their stupid misconceptions about the field: "Oh, what am I thinking RIGHT NOW?", or "You're hanging out in a good place, we're all crazy here, haha". Ugh!)
Come on people! Don't you have ANYTHING interesting to say? I know we've all been told that asking questions is the key to being a good conversationalist, but first you need to actually HAVE conversation that is ABOUT something - preferably something that is interesting to both parties. I'm not opposed to starting conversations with questions on principal, but at least ask questions that are fun to answer and will actually spark a dialogue. Duh!
