What's up?

I sometimes forget that people are different from me. As an example, I tend to consider certain gestures to be dull and meaningless; scripted to the point that I almost find them offensive-- why even bother when it's clear that neither of us cares? But it came to my attention recently that these gestures are genuinely important to people who simply happen not to be me.

Hold on a sec while I think of a way to tie this in to My Future Kids.

. . .

Okay I got it.
Social niceties. I will make a point of making My Future Kids get into the habit of paying attention to them, no matter how meaningless. Ideally, you really would mean them, which makes them not dull or meaningless, but you are expected to hold to them regardless of whether you mean it or not. I guess my problem with them is when you can tell that they're done out of obligation, and I would have preferred if no attempt at upholding the niceties had been made at all. It stands to reason then that I should also teach My Future Kids to fake sincerity as well. It will make them more friends anyway. I hope that doesn't make them prematurely cynical and jaded with life. It's possible that fake sincerity is just a Midwestern thing, I'm not sure. I heard some anecdotal evidence stating that Midwesterners are more likely to act interested in you regardless of whether or not they care about what you're saying. I don't know. I tend to just do this all the time because I'm not good at paying attention. To anyone who has talked at me for any sort of extended period of time-- I'm sorry you had to find out like this.