Although historically we do not have certain indications of how or when we began to use the greeting among the members of a community, it is clear that the act of greeting is a recognition towards the other. And to do this, we had to develop a whole series of absolutely essential feelings in the communication actssuch as empathy, compassion, respect, etc.
The first indications we have about greetings appear in the Iliad and the Odyssey (8th century BC), when the term is discussed. dexiosiswhich translates as “take the right hand”. In the East (China and Japan) bows appear in the 7th century AD
Etymologically, the word greet It means “to wish for health”, and therefore it is fairly understandable that these words, in ancient times, were the best of wishes in the face of short life expectancy. The fact is that the greeting is one of the most refined ways that we humans have of education and courtesyforms that seem to be completely out of use now, thanks to the digital world.
Before the fixed telephones, communicating with someone who didn't live in our same city could take a matter of days. Therefore, when we managed to connect with that person, it generated a great emotion in us to say “Hello! How are you? », Because we really wanted to know about his life, completely private and far from our knowledge. However, today, thanks to the platforms of internet, we can communicate for free from the most remote town in Spain with New Zealand, for example, in a matter of seconds. We have the technological power to have it all, at all times.
Added to this, today 5,173 million people in the world (60% of the population) have at least one social network. Every minute 695,000 stories are uploaded on Instagram and 69 million messages are sent on WhatsApp, which means that we are in constant communicationnot only between people, but we communicate our lives to the world on the networks.
For this reason, when we chat on WhatsApp, we believe that we no longer have the need to say “Hello” or “Good morning”, much less ask “How are you?”, simply because we do not have the impression of starting a conversation. WhatsApp has become a place where we have conversations that don't start or end (how long has it been since you said “goodbye”?), but rather they are a kind of infinite conversation, which we resume every time we connect.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that, when we ask someone “how are you?”, we do something as genuinely human as taking an interest in the other; and if we don't do it, because a digital medium makes us believe that it is not necessary, we are the ones who, without realizing it, are becoming machines without feelings.
We live in a complicated time, in which technology distances us from human contact, and therefore, “being human” in the midst of a digital world means being more compassionate, empathetic and supportive of others every day. We need to open more spaces to express our real feelings, and not those we publish on the networks.
We can never know when a word can make someone's day better, or how much we can help them just by listening to them. Therefore, let us never miss the opportunity to ask “how are you?”
And how are you?