What’s up?

Photo by 𝓴𝓘𝓡𝓚 𝕝𝔸𝕀 on Unsplash

27 years ago, 4 Non-Blondes - a rock band based out of California released their first and only album “ Bigger, Better, Faster, More!”. “What’s up?” is a song from this album and it gave the band significant airplay recognition.

The phrase “what’s up?” doesn’t appear in the song, but “what’s going on?” is present in the chorus.

Fast forward to the present, “what’s up?” is present in pretty much every conversation, especially as a starter.

I use it frequently when I am jumpstarting a conversation, especially if the discussion is initiated to solely check on the person’s well being. Even though I am an advocate of its usage, I have always struggled with a response when people ask me “what’s up?”.

I tend to overthink the response and end up shooting multiple questions back to the person who just wanted to get a simple answer about my well being. In my defense, I want to give the answer that’s aligned with what they are seeking as a response.

Is it the status of my emotional condition?; What have I been doing in life?; What was I doing when the “what’s up?” text was received? It could be any of those.

As someone who usually faces a roadblock when this greeting is received, it felt like a worthwhile activity to lay down some of the possible responses.

1. Sticking to a standard response irrespective of how your life is. This is similar to a minimalist’s approach of wearing the same outfit to reduce decision fatigue.
2. Turn into a reporting junkie and give a dump of all the activities engaged in since you woke up. Bulletizing or numbering may be pushing it, but nothing like some order in the conversation.
3. Turn into Socrates (something I usually do)— ask counter questions to get to the core of the “what’s up?” in order to analyze, iron out possible assumptions, and finally give a response. If you are in the mood to piss a person off, after all the questioning, you can just say “I’m fine!”
4. If you are genuinely interested in a conversation with the person and want them to feel good about reaching out to you, pick an instance that reminded you of the person recently and package into a response.
5. Pull a Phoebe and say something along the lines of “I wish I could, but I don’t want to”. It is Phoebe’s response to Joey and Chandler asking if she wants to help, but it can be tweaked for a “what’s up?” too.

Bonus: “Nothing much” is a conversation assassin. The perfect two words for nipping a discussion in its bud.

Thank you for reading!