Art of Conversation

Young people don't know how they sound. We adults are inclined to be kind and accept their quirks as cute things that will pass and are thus acceptable since they will likely go away in time.  There is a certain quirk among the habits of youth, that is not admirable or acceptable. They speak as though it's a race to get as many words into the shortest time frame possible. What they need to learn is that talking isn't lightning speed texting. Conversation, now an old-fashioned method of speech with the advent of hand held junk, is becoming extinct. Flying thumbs are not voices. They are texters that do not make sounds. Voices that speak words, need to be encoded by a listener. Most teens use not more than three words orally at a time. Listen to them sometime. When I encounter teen clerks or servers over a counter in a store or other situation, I find that they speak so quickly that it's like reading something that has all the spaces between words, removed. Many times, I have had to ask more than once, youngsters serving me, to please repeat what they said. Of course, they give the eyeball roll which I suppose means "oh here's another old duck who is half deaf or stupid". Nope. I am neither deaf nor stupid but I do like to know what on earth you are trying to impart with your machine gun patter. "Slow down" is what I would like to say to this individual. What causes this aberration in speech?  Could it be due to the fact that so few of our young actually speak or converse with each other or anyone for that matter. I find the California drawl that has them ack acking their words and then holding onto the last syllable over-long, an example. This isn't the movies and they are not the Kardashians or Paris Hilton. I say to them, lose the drawl and voice growl. If you don't know what I am saying, tune into Netflix and watch a teen movie if you can stomach it. I am not speaking of Disney sorts of cartoons that are generally clearly spoken, but of the high school angst sorts of mindless films. The over-use of "like" and the usual foul four letter expletives  have become rampant and aped as cute and useable, sadly, by our young folk.  I suppose parents are the people responsible for language training since it begins at home and not at school, as some misinformed may believe. Do parents sit down and talk to their young other than the usual "clean up your room" and "where are you going" which doesn't require other than a grunt in response. Perhaps families ought to gather sans hand-held devices present,  and actually have discussions together to get back the beautiful art of conversation that is almost extinct.