That’s ridiculous – we’ve been saying hello to each other for millions of years. As I just mentioned, the word appeared in print a couple of hundred years ago. But it’s a deviation of “holla”, “hollo”, “halloo” or “hillo”, all of which were used in English as attention-grabbing noises since at least the 16th century.
But we use it all the time now. Only because of the telephone. After the phone’s invention by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, Thomas Edison decided that a new standardised greeting needed to be invented.
Because previously people tended to greet each other with time-based salutations, such as “good morning” or “good evening”. But the telephone could instantly cross time zones, which made these redundant. Because Edison preferred it to Bell’s favoured “Ahoy-hoy”.
Anyway, forget all that, because nobody says hello any more. Technology has marched on again: everyone has a smartphone with caller ID now. Why go through the charade of a “hello?” when you already know who’s calling you?
I don’t know, basic politeness? The New York Times has reported on the death of hello, stating that young people now prefer to answer the phone with “Hi”, “What’s up?” or “Yeah?”. A survey last year revealed that 40% of 18-24 year-olds feel that it is acceptable to answer the phone without any form of greeting whatsoever.
It sort of makes sense, though. Conversations have become free-form things spread across multiple formats. If you’ve just been texting, or DMing, or emailing with someone, a phone call is just a continuation and arguably doesn’t require anything as formal as a hello.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
