Why Do You Ask?

Since I had this conversation in passing with someone again this morning, it reminded me that I've meant to write about it for a while.

Them: How's it going?
Me: Hi.
Them: Good!

When it's someone I don't really know, I can tell that they don't mean it when they ask how I'm doing or how things are going, so I respond with what they mean, just a simple hello, not with what they say. Their response to what they expected my response to be further reinforces that they don't care because they clearly weren't listening. Why would you ask me a question you don't want the answer to or don't care about the answer to? I won't do that to you. If I don't really care how your day is going, I'll just give you a polite 'hi' and leave it at that. Conversely, if I ask how your day is going, I want an honest answer, not just your stock response of "OK" when you're dying on the inside or overjoyed. Why do people feel the need to cheapen everything including language? I wonder if it registers as odd to the other person like it does to me the conversation we had. I guess I don't really care, which kind of works out because they don't either.