<p>What's the point of even saying "hi" to your acquaintances? You guys know what I'm talking about... those people that you sort of know, but not really. The conversation usually goes like whenever you see them on campus "Hey sup", "sup man" and then you guys keep walking... </p>
<p>I saw some guy who lived in my dorm last year and this was the conversation. </p>
<p>"Hey, how you doing?"</p>
<p>"Good. How are you doing?"</p>
<p>"Good." and then we walked off awkwardly... *** was the point of that</p>
<p>Another guy who was a friend of my roommate (who I wasn't too friendly with but I didn't hate the guy/had any problems with). I saw him on campus and smiled and gave him a nod and a slight wave (knowing 100% that if I didn't initiate, he probably wouldn't have said anything to me). </p>
<p>Everything just seems so contrived and fake. I feel like just ignoring these people sometimes and not even acknowledging them and just waiting for people to initiate contact first.... I mean, I understand it's just common courtesy and has become procedural to an intent. I mean, what kind of relationships are these?</p>
<p>Acquaintances turn into friendships and networking. Friendships mean happiness and networking means success. And it also brightens my day when I wave smile and say hello to somebody, even if I don’t know them that well.</p>
<p>I guess I’ve never considered being polite anything but the right thing to do. You just never know what kind of day another person is having and that “Hi,” may just be the one thing that keeps a person going and lets them know that someone realizes they are in the world.</p>
<p>Hey, maybe we should all stare blankly in front of us at all times when passing other people! You know, just in case someone we know passes by…wouldn’t want to have an awkward interaction, now!</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I wonder how the OP feels about smiling and saying hello to people you don’t know?</p>
<p>…To be a friendly person, perhaps? If you don’t want to, don’t, I guess. Not everything in life has intense meaning. I like to say hello to people because I like to be friendly, plus I know I enjoy when people say hello to me, so I like to pass that on. Also because for most of my “acquaintance” type relationships, I would consider ignoring them to be rude. Plus, as people have said, there could be someone who knows you a little bit, thinks you’re a cool person…and then you ignore them and they’re totally turned off. </p>
<p>But if you don’t want to, then don’t. No one will force you. God forbid you might have to be friendly to someone who hasn’t necessarily done anything for you. Threads like this are REALLY only found on CC, good lord.</p>
<p>I do this all the time and I’m at my fourth year at my school. Not because I don’t want an awkward interaction, but because I literally know only one person that goes here and we only see each other around once a year.</p>
<p>Actually, throw in roommates as acquaintances too. That makes three people I know. One had this exact conversation with me after not seeing me for 2 years</p>
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<p>and for the other one, we’d say hi to each other whenever we saw each other although we never said anything else (he wasn’t too kind to me at the beginning of the semester so I just stopped talking to him about anything else). </p>
<p>If someone doesn’t say something other than “hi” or a similar greeting for a good 3 months of knowing them I just start ignoring them. It DOES seem pointless if you two aren’t going to extend it any further. It’s like, yeah, it makes you feel like you exist, but that those people don’t think you’re worth anything more than that so it makes you feel worse after a while. I do love that feeling when strangers say hi to me on the street though (also hasn’t happened in years). </p>
<p>I miss being around people… I hate my schedule :</p>