In pop culture dystopian novels about the future, like “Feed” and anything by George Saunders, people have a curious habit of ending declarative statements with question marks.

Example:

We broke up. But it wasn’t my fault? I was just kind of busy working on myself? Like going to the gym and Breeze Tan? So I didn’t have time to notice that he was on too many antidepressants – like maybe 3 different ones?

These writers seem to think that our generation has a habit of not being able to commit to our statements. There seem to be other indications of this:

-Constant softening of descriptions with “sort of” and “kinda”

-Over-use of “just” to add a diminutive quality to a statement.

I just kinda need some time alone to write in my Moleskine.

-Acknowledgement that things “seem” a certain way, rather than “are”

-Acknowledgement of relativity ”I think” “I feel”

I just feel that this ugly christmas sweater party seems kind of played-out

-Use of quotation marks to denote that you are skeptical about your own use of a term, or about the term being an agreed-on term at all

Ugh, this “organic diet” is really making me broke

So, why is it that we seem so insecure about what we are saying?

-Becky Lang (originally from my Tumblr but brought out in light of today’s “annoying speech habit” theme)