I’m asking because it’s a very normal thing to do here.
When you enter a room, but also things like a hairdresser or say a small cafe, you say hello to the people there and say goodbye when leaving. Or when taking a bus, you say hello to the driver and goodbye or thank him when getting off.
I was only recently told by some online friends of mine that this is pretty weird in other places. So I’m wondering if I’m (or my country) is the weird one or them
It tends to happen in smaller towns here in Canada, but not in bigger towns or cities. I think it’s mostly a social fatigue thing. When you only meet 10 people on a day out, it’s not taxing to have more of a personal encounter with them. But if you regularly see 100+ people, it would be too much to acknowledge each one socially, even just with eye contact and a group greeting. I would have drained my social battery before even making it to my first destination.
But back in a small town, I say hi to every single person I meet. Though not usually bye. I am a relatively asocial person, but I do try to at least treat people how they want to be treated. I’m autistic, so most of my social behaviour is prompted by cues, rather than being something I “feel like doing”. But it also makes trends like that pretty noticeable to me. I can vaguely tell when I’m making people uncomfortable, but I usually have to guess why specifically, most people won’t tell you, even if you ask. Hehe. But because of that, I over-analyze all social interactions. And I have a close group of friends that have stuck with me and help me out. It’s very helpful to have feedback from their perspective. It has helped me to hone my own manufactured social skills and protocols to seem alot like a normal person most of the time. When inside I feel more like a robot programmed to resemble a human, lol.
But yeah, in Canada that resembles small town social behaviour. The rest is just guesses by me.