Useless questions?

[hottyicecat]

Anyone knows why some questions are called to be useless? I got my own theory for that, but not sure if its the right one, if there is a right one at all.
For example, asking "How are u doing?"; "what are you doing?"; "how have u been?" some says its useless questions. I have meet, not many, but few people, who always told me that thous questions are useless and i should stop asking them, i never got an answer to it "why is it?".
So does anyone knows if there is a "one real answer" to this?

[Dharmic Tui]

I think what people are getting at is that this is often just an empty pleasantry; the person asking how you are doesn't necessarily care how you are, and the person answering probably won't give an honest answer either - it's rare someone says "life is terrible, thanks for asking".

However, it's part of social etiquette to function in contemporary society. Depending on how busy I am my answer or response will be quite candid rather than guarded, I guess its up to you how far you want to take it.

[Mpgkona]

Like DT says its prt of social etiquette and mores to engage in this small talk. Small talk is such a huge part of society, and I would suspect a very large portion of many social interactions are nothing more than small talk. After my first retreat I really noticed the uselessness of this small talk, but there's no sense in having aversion towards it. I just deal with it, engage in it, and swallow my pride when small talk rears it's ugly head.

[Matthew]

The question, if well intentioned and asked mindfully, is not the issue. The issue is the habituated lies that the question being asked elicits: I'm fine thanks - the most common lie and the one that trains us to ignore inner feeling and even disrespect it.

[hottyicecat]

Thanks for the answers.
I got similar thoughts about this, but there are more too... but i guess it just depends on the other person and nothing to think about it much