mini-pooper as opposed to a cooper....(a rant)

So, one little social anomaly that has increasingly bugged me, is this annoying use of a particular opening line of most phone conversations. Typically it will proceed as follows:

Receiver: "Hello?"
Initiating caller: "Hello? Hi , Claire here, how are you?"
Receiver: "good"

The "how are you" part kills me.
It's now become the standard opener, and it wouldn't be such a lame thing if it held any real meaning.
But it doesn't.
I hear people start phone conversations here where I work (IT), and it just sounds so lame, like the person placing the call is really just getting something out of the way.

Boy, I guess this perhaps reaveals the idealist in me, where I want words to actually mean something.
Alas!