How are you?

"Hey there"
"Hi"
"How're you doing?"
"I'm good, good really, thanks, how're you doing?"
"Great thanks, I'm ok!"

And repeat, perhaps a hundred times a day. This mind-numbing ritual is the
necessary and obliged nicety that is continually repeated throughout
university campuses around the world. You don't know each other well enough
to enquire about substantive events, and so resort to semi-friendly, off the
cuff greetings which mean essentially nothing at all despite the number of
times repeated.
Add to this fact the reality that the repetition become ever more sickening
and dull with time. As you welcome these mundane relationships every day
you become progressively aware of how pointless and shallow they are and
kick yourself for continuing them.

One needs a cull of those we know - there is a limit to the number of
'friends' I can care about at a time - you just can't follow everybody's
life.