Today's Review: People Who Say "Alright?" Instead Of "Hello"

I'll be the first to admit that I'm pretty socially awkward. Sure, I'm fine once I get to know someone, but those first few moments are quite hard for me, because I can't really do small talk. The "How are you"s, the "How was your weekend"s, it's hard for me to form them into a fluid sounding conversation. So imagine my thoughts when someone greets me by saying "Alright?"

Now at first, I think this is a pretty straightforward greeting. No time for hellos, just skip straight to the how do you dos. But if someone says "Alright?" and I say "Yeah", I am then often met with a "How are you?". What do I say to that? I've already informed you that I'm alright, what more do you want from me? It then becomes apparent that the starting "Alright?" was supposed to be some form of greeting instead of a question. But then in some cases, it's not, it depends on the person. It's all very confusing and makes for one socially inept me.

Do you know how many words that you can use to greet someone? Let me tell you, there are lots. Hello, hey, hi, yo, howdy, greetings, salutations, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, not to mention all the other languages you can use if you want to be thoroughly amusing. There are also the wordless forms, like a wave, salute, or nod. With so many options, how did a one word question intended to find out the wellbeing of a person become the greeting? I don't like it, it makes me nervous. But I guess that's just me. Other people have clearly gotten used to it. Maybe adopting it will be the start of my road to recovery. But at the moment I don't like it.

My rating: 1/5