Not much how’bout yoy?

“Ah you know, same old.”

Not much, you?

Living the dream

“Nothing worth mentioning, you?”

It gets awkward

I can’t remember the last time nothing has been going on in my life. It sounds wonderful.

gettin’ better at turnin’ food to poop, you?

Not too much. Just doing the daily.

This is an honest and correct answer if that is your situation. Nothing wrong with that.

I tell the truth. Nothing. I don’t care to expend the energy to make up an excuse.

This reminds me of the time that I learned that the correct answer to “what’s up?” is “what’s up?” At least in the context of that one coworker who would say that to me as we were walking past each other.

I’ve since learned to recognize these things as a “bid for connection”. It generally has little to do with the content of the question or the answer and everything to do with relating.

So basically there is no wrong answer. And there are lots of good examples in this thread!

Personally I tend to answer “not much” as a knee-jerk reaction, but sometimes I’ll remember to say something else after that.

Usually a brief “I just read/played/watched such-and-such”

If they know it, we can chat about it. If they don’t, and they’re interested, we can chat about it. Otherwise, the conversation moves on and the social rite is concluded successfully.

In general, switch the question to, “What’s new in the world?”

“I’m a normal user of sidewalks.”

I’m functioning within normal parameters.