Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
This has a lot of good insight, but I was struck by how differently I experience> “What’s up?” is one of the most dreadful texts to get; it’s short for “Hello, I’d like you to entertain me now.”The typical response to "What's up?" from myself and, uh, nearly everyone I know, is some variation on"Not much!  What's up with you?" or"[trivial recent happening, quickly related] So, what's been going on with you?"...and that's because "What's up?" is nearly universally a way to prompt someone to ask you that question back, so you can tell them about the thing you really want to say without it seeming sudden or forced.