How to situationally respond to 「お元気ですか」?

Question

I'm curious about how native speakers actually respond to the simple question of 「お元気ですか。」 I'm currently going into my third year of studying Japanese. My first-year Japanese professor impressed upon us that no matter what, always respond with 「ええ、おかげさまで。」 That always seemed very formal to me. In fact, my second-year professor often responded with just 「はい、元気」 and a Japanese friend of mine seemed surprised when I used 「おかげさまで」 to answer him.

I've done a fair bit of searching around on the internet, and I've seen mixed responses, so I'm assuming it's a very situational type of thing. When would you use 「元気です」 vs 「おかげさまで」 vs some other response?

Answer 1

As a native Japanese speaker, I have never said お元気ですか to someone I meet almost everyday. You can tell, at a glance, if they are 元気 or not today, if you meet them everyday, right?

お元気ですか seems to me a greeting in letter or in phone call, that is, when you can't see them. You can say お元気ですか when you meet someone you haven't met for a while but still お元気でしたか or 元気だった? sound more natural to me.

Typical responses are おかげさまで and うん、元気 but it is not uncommon to talk about how actually you are/were.

「お久しぶりです。お元気でしたか」
「これは、どうも。実は、この間、風邪をひいて、ひどい目に遭いました。」
「おや、実は私もです。」

In phone call between intimate friends

「元気〜？」
「なんか、夏バテぎみ〜」
「えー、そっかー、そっちのほう、暑そうだもんね」

Answer 2

As you said, it's all situational. You can use 「おかげさまで」 when you are asked how you are by someone that is superior to you, like your boss, 「先輩」 or professor. If replying to a friend in a conversation, you can just say 「うん、元気」. In short, it is all about social rank.

Answer 3

Replying with 元気です sounds lighthearted a little bit, because お元気ですか is so rare that you won't hear it unless you meet again your acquaintance who you haven't seen for long. Well, it depends on you after all.