I believe in the south, those are rhetorical questions/greetings. Everyone does it. "How ya doin?" is just like saying "Hello."

I've caught myself doing the same thing, so I fixed that. But what happens when you fix something like that? You don't get an answer 99% of the time b/c the other person isn't ready for that.

stranger "hey, how are you?"

me "good. and yourself?"

stranger "......"

-Ant.