Are questions like "how are you" the new form of "hello"?

Just wondering, because everytime someone asks me “how are you? how was your weekend? how is school going?” I just answer with a good or a fine without even thinking about what they just asked. Do people just ask these questions as a new form of greeting or do they actually wait for a response?

Obviously if my friends are asking I’m going to give them a more indepth answer but for example I say hello to the man who cleans our dorm every morning, and every morning he asks “how are you” and I say “fine how are you” but by the time he says he’s good I’m walking down the hall and he’s focusing on his work again.

Do you give different answers to different people? And when you ask these questions do you expect anything other than a general answer? Do these questions naturally just follow the hello nowadays??