Agreed. How are you in American culture tends to not elicit any sort of personal information (i.e. think about how many times people say "good"). Something sign

Agreed. How are you in American culture tends to not elicit any sort of personal information (i.e. think about how many times people say "good"). Something significantly more specific like 'how did you sleep' or 'what have you been thinking about" get to the essence of our original question of how the other person is.