By Nicholas Whitt |Staff Writer|

“I feel like sometimes people say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ because they have to. I know I do that. Sometimes I really do want to know, but it usually feels superficial to me. Even from me,” stated Coyote Dominic Martinez.

The process when seeing someone you might know follows a certain set of socially agreed rules, for instance, passing someone in the hallway and asking how they are doing. However do we really care about how they respond or are we just saying hello?

This is an example of socializing that people tend to follow.

Some are okay with doing these stigmas while others not so much.

“I don’t like it when co-workers think it’s okay for us to chill outside of work when we only have conversations during lunch,” said current Amazon worker Devante Steen.

Even if you have had a couple of conversations with someone and barely know their name, it doesn’t mean you need to establish a relationship with them or you might not be good friends, but if you want them to have a certain idea about you, some would say that you need to be “fake” towards them.

“Just because you’re with someone for a little bit or because of proximity doesn’t make it any less real. It just means it’s not as deep of a relationship or interaction. Superficial doesn’t have to mean fake, just not as developed,” stated Coyote Angel Muñoz.

People may think that being superficial is just a defense or barrier due to them not being close to the person they are talking to.

“In each of my classes, I have friends, maybe some are more acquaintances, and we talk and stuff…I’m not super close to them and I certainly won’t take a bullet for them, but I might try to push them out of the way if I a hundred percent know I won’t get shot,” continued Muñoz.

Certainly people may not feel comfortable taking their barrier down but others may love breaking the stigma behind personal space.

“I love giving hugs to pretty much everybody,” stated student Marisela Lopez.

People can believe others shouldn’t be superficial in the way of their actions, but instead actually genuinely be a social person.

Lopez continued, “To me, hugging is just the same as a handshake or even a kiss on the cheek for the Europeans. It doesn’t have to be super special to be meaningful. Meaning is meaning.”

Socially having to do certain things isn’t a problem for some people, even if it means that you must constantly do them.

Ultimately, I believe student David Sanchez said it best.

“A lot of the things we do are socially ritualistic. It all just really depends. Like saying bless you to someone who sneezes. It doesn’t really help the person in any way, but we do it anyway…because some of us genuinely care.”