The other day I was offered that statement as an excuse not to talk to girls. Instead, the guy tried to memorize what the girl looked like and went through hundreds of Facebook pages to locate a girl online. Apparently, this is less creepy than saying hello.

It's still beyond me as to why so many guys, and girls, can't simply say "hello". It's not a hard thing, nor is it awkward. Do you have a reason for not approaching people?

Do you have a reason for approaching people? If you do, knock yourself out. If it's just to say "hello" to a total stranger, with nothing to follow it up, then it's kind of strange/annoying.

I can't say I'm particularly shy towards girls, but I do tend to avoid a few social cliques to diffuse uncomfortable/violent situations before they can become such.

There's always more to say than simply "hello". That's merely a quick greeting; the word "hello" is just used to represent any manner of approaching a person.

Like what? I mean, say you see someone on the street who you think is attractive. You walk up and say hello, she says "uh, hi..." in that tone of voice like she's wondering what you're going to try to sell her, and then: ?

You have nothing to go on. You don't know anything about her so starting a superficial conversation would be difficult. Starting an actually meaningful conversation would be almost completely impossible. On top of that, not everyone is thrilled with being approached by chatty strangers, and most people would be vaguely annoyed when it turned out they had nothing of value (read: superficial conversation) to say.

Exactly. You can't just go and approach people without something to say - that IS worse than the facebook thing. You shouldn't just go and say hi to every girl you like the look of in the street, it gives off the wrong signals.

I find a wink says a lot more than a "hello" and there's no awkwardness afterwards. If I see a hot girl on the street or in a bar, I make eye contact, smile and wink. If she just ignores me then she's not interested and I know not to waste my time. If she smiles back I might go over and talk to her, ask her what she's up to etc etc. And sometimes following a wink she'll come over and start talking to you. You can't lose, unless some guy comes over telling you not to wink at his girl.

Exactly!

To all the doubters, I'm currently in a small ski town and you could point to any girl and tell me to go talk to her and I'd go well providing she is single. I don't even have any game. Be friendly, smile, and break the ice with a joke.

All I need her to do is make eye contact with me to allow me to smile at her, then the rest is as easy as walking up and saying hello, then introducing my self. It's that simple.

I could list several examples of how walking up and saying hello with no back up plan turned into more.

I approach girls with "hello.jpg".

Winking>Facebook stalking>Saying hello

in terms of creepiness that is.