I think the difference between the terse younger generations with their poor communication skills and the older generations who exhibit courtesy and empathy is the advent of cell phones, video gaming and social media.
They text rather than talk, they shorten commonly used words into abbreviations, and they won't even answer the phone if they don't recognize the caller. Part of the reason is that life is faster-paced today, so multi-tasking has become a necessity. I never even heard the term "multi-tasking" until the early 2000s, come to think of it.
I do agree there is a bigger divide between the generations today than ever before. But that's likely because (for the first time in our history) cell phones and social media were part of their up-bringing and childhood... making it more difficult for older people with good manners to relate to them.
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