Please Read This Story, Thank You.

Central argument: Linton Weeks argues that people have stopped using "polite" phrases while speaking because people nowadays are so casual in every manner that it even reflects on the way they communicate and act. I agree with Weeks because I have noticed that a lot of people, including myself, think that using polite words is being too formal and it is best to avoid words and phrases like "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome."

My mother always tells me that kids from our generation are "just ill mannered." She keeps reminding me of how much they used to respect elders when they were young and how much "we" disregard them now. In a way I think it is true, but can we really blame our generation for the way we behave? I mean I am sure we weren’t born impolite. Time changes and with time so do people and their ways of behaving. A few centuries ago women didn't even have the rights to speak and now they are in the peak of success. I don't think they would have been where they are now had they not changed the way they behaved. As the people's way of behaving changed, so did their way of communicating. The way we communicate nowadays may seem rude to older generation, but to us it is normal.

When I chat with someone on facebook I normally right things like "what's up" or "how is life?" I realized that I never really asked them how they were in a proper manner. As the use of jargons have increased so has our casualty. If someone has to thank a person then this is how they do so: "OMG, I owe you one man." And, the most common reply to this is " LOL. It's okay man" or "LOL. No problem." Yes, this is how a conversation takes place in today's context. There are very few people who actually make proper use of the traditional phrases and I think media should hugely be blames for this. Movies that we watch and the songs that we listen to always try to bring up new ways of talking and acting. In almost all movies that I have watched, the characters portray the type of role which shows that being casual in the way you are speaking is the new cool.

Speaking of media, songs, especially the R&B and hip-hop ones, bring up new ways of using words and phrases. What they sing doesn't really make sense but still they are a hit in the music industry and the wannabe listeners of make it a trend. I don't know since when swearing at every sentence you use became normal whereas being polite became too formal. Week writes about how people in shops do not do their job well and I completely agree with her in that one. The salespeople in almost all the shops I have been in are ill mannered in a way that they are always grumpy and could not care less if we wanted any help.

Reading this article actually enraged me and writing it made it worse as I realized that Weeks is right and I fall under the category of this new "rude" generation. People nowadays have forgotten their etiquettes and the only way to bring it back is by practicing it as frequently as possible with as many people as possible.