Taylor Mali: Poem Analysis

In this poem, poet Taylor Mali is making an assertion that today’s generation has become less definitive and clear with their language. Rather than plainly state what they want, think, or need, individuals are now posing these convictions they have as questions. Mali says that the reason for the sudden ambiguity among individuals is due to the fact that our society has become unable to phrase their sentences to properly express how they feel. Individuals have become so inarticulate that to disguise it we have resorted to using less words and just hoping that others will understand the point we are making. In order to avoid having to explain the reasoning behind ideas, individuals are starting to convert their statements into questions. This

Typically, teenagers and young adults try to use as few words possible in order to mask their inarticulateness while still trying to explain themselves. As a result, our sentences are ambiguous and lack any definitive opinions. For instance, social media has contributed to this issue by forcing users to conform to character limits that prevent people from fully explaining themselves. Specifically, on twitter, users are restricted to 140 characters, which prevents them from being able to write clear, understandable statements. Consequently, many tweets or posts can be falsely interpreted since they are so vaguely written. Rather than state what we truly think, we are now “subtweeting” and are forced to read between the lines that would not exist if society were more articulate. Moreover, a huge component of pop culture is slang and abbreviations. These abbreviations are used shorten what we are saying and mask the fact that we cannot express ourselves. Frequently, teens use slang such as YOLO, SMH, or LOL it express how they feel without actually saying it out. This demonstrates how as a society we are incredibly dependent on hoping that others understand what we are trying to