Because I don’t, and pretending to feels dishonest. I’ll listen if they want to talk about it, but I’m not going to act interested, and I certainly won’t ask about it on my own. What I’m trying to figure out is whether people actually care, or if they’re just playing a social game that I’m simply not interested in.
I’m probably on the autistic spectrum, which likely explains this to some extent. But that’s not an excuse - being an asshole is perfectly compatible with autism, so before dunking on me, please realise I probably agree with your criticism.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. But they feel good if I take an interest, and them feeling good matters to me. So I do listen to stuff that I don’t care about sometimes.
But also, I wanna know hoe they’re doing and whether they’re okay. I’ll gladly distill that from a bunch of irrelevant info. Bonus’ I can make them more happy by asking how their [something] went/is.