There is a non-natural order of things that we have to consider when it comes to just about anything. Let us use the text message example above, and look at these possible responses. *Britney Spears ringtone goes off*, open text message, message says: "Hey, how are you?". From best to worst, here are the responses:
1) "I'm doing great!" -This is like being cheerleader happy. Or worse, maybe being Disneyland-employee happy. There is no doubt in the reader's mind that you are doing awesome.
2) "I'm pretty good!" -Don't forget the "pretty" part though, if you're a manly man and cannot even imagine saying that word, try "really" instead.
3) "I'm good!" -You're good!
4) "I'm fine" -Notice this one does not have an exclamation point. There is a reason for that. Just kidding.. there isn't. Just imagine "I'm fine!" though, its not good. It almost sounds leave-me-alone-ish
5) "I'm alright" -This one finally under the neutral "I'm fine" zone. It just doesn't cut it as "good" because it isn't happy.
6) "I'm O.K." -Oh, there it is. This one is the worst of them all. Which reminds me, I was supposed to explain why.. Check out the next paragraph.
We are taught to respond and then add an "and you?" at the end, right? Well, if you respond with "not good" the other person has to ask you "what's wrong?" and then the conversation goes off based on your misfortunes in life. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that.. it just goes against the rules of politeness, since you can't ask "and you?" after saying "not good."
So instead of using bad things like "I'm doing crappy!" or "not so good.." we typically use different versions of the word 'Good': Fine, well, O.K., legit, etc. And the response "O.K." just happened to be thrown at the bottom of the list because it seems less good than the others.
So... how are you guys?
