Hello. how are you?

Being at University, and especially living in residence/dorm, means that we encounter loads of people everyday. And although we may not know them very well, the fact that we know them at all sort of obligates us to greet them. So we do, we say "Hey, how are you?". Not because we really care how they are, in fact we hope that their response will be that they are either good, fine or alright. Because if they respond with anything less than that it means that our interaction with them has to go further than we can stand or that we care for. Think about it. Do you really care about how each and every person that you greet really is doing? Part of our socialisation means that we have been taught to be polite enough to greet a person if we see them and asking them how they are is part of this social norm. If we don't aknowledge them at all, and we do know them, we are perceived to be rude or even selfish. Although I walk past people that I know all the time, they often won't greet me. And then I begin to wonder what I have done wrong or what it is about me that makes them find it inappropriate to say hello to me. With this said, when we don't greet somebody they may be insulted, but if we do greet them and ask them how we are and we don't actually care...is that not even more insulting? I would rather you not greet me at all, pretend that I do not exist in any context whatsoever, than to ask me how I am and not really give a rat's ass.

Why do we do it though? Why do we ask people how they are and expect an answer when we aren't really interested as to what that answer may be at all? God forbid they say that they are not fine at all. Then we have to fake some kind of concern and follow up with questions as to what is wrong. It is just so much easier for someone to answer on a positive note, even if it is not the truth, then to get into the details. 

Thereafter, the natural exchange seems to be: "I am good/fine/alright, and you?". I find it a bit rude if you ask someone how they are and they don't ask you back. Is it because they are not willing to lie and pretend that they have some sort of interest in your life and they just don't care? Is it laziness, selfishness? It might be less insulting then, if they do not exchange plesantries at all rather exchange ones that aren't in the least bit genuine. So why greet at all?