Aggressively Inarticulate...

I was exposed to this video during a class discussion on slam poetry. At first it made me genuinely laugh out loud, but then after the second & third viewing- it made me really think.  Initially I was struck with the idea that this was simply a product of the older generation lamenting their increasingly obsolete role in a world full of growing & changing technology which they may fail to master. The idea that every single generation since "you know, a long time ago" has philosophized about & criticized the next generation for their: taste in music, books, movies, dance, fashion, moral character, family values, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and the ability to express themselves. If we consider the way the English language was spoken even one hundred years ago, we will see how it has evolved, how the way that we express our thoughts has changed. My first thought was that the Baby Boom Generation has no right to critique the way we express ourselves- the hypocrisy would simply be unbearable. To be criticized by the generation who changed the world in terms of their: taste in music, books, movies, dance, fashion, moral character, family values, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and the ability to express themselves......would simply make no sense. Well....yes.... there is slang, and short forms meant to accommodate the ever increasing pace of our technological lives & yet I would venture to speculate that Shakespeare would take issue with the way that even the more articulate person of the older generation expresses themselves today. Expression through language has always been an ever changing force.............however, this was only my first thought.
I then began to consider why it is that we attach "invisible question marks" & "parenthetical- you knows" to the ends of declarative sentences. Is Mr. Mali correct? Is it "uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about"? Or to "believe strongly in what you're, like, saying"? What has caused this phenomenon? What has happened to us as a generation to cause us to be uninvested in our own opinions? Who has infected us with this uncertainty & insecurity? So much so that we feel the need to invite others to agree with us & validate our thoughts and feelings by using "right?" or "you know?" at the ends of our sentences? I do not believe that it is a lack of internal conviction. I also believe that it is dismissive to suggest that it is because this generation has "nothing to say". How can we as teachers encourage our students to speak with authority & conviction if we fail to understand the causes of the generational condition of uncertainty.
Is the internet responsible? Have we become so accustomed to having ways of finding people who share our exact taste in music, books, movies, dance, fashion, moral character & family values- that we have lost any reason to have to support & defend out beliefs with logic, reason and conviction? If someone disagrees with our beliefs & opinions- we can simply refuse to engage in thoughtful debate, because we have an online community who believes what we believe.
I don't know.
Have people have become so afraid of any kind of conflict or confrontation that we have lost our desire and ability to thoughtfully express ourselves? Have we have become "aggressively inarticulate" in order to protect ourselves from having to expose the truth of our thoughts, beliefs & feelings, in order to shield ourselves from disagreement?