Several years ago, my husband observed how people are becoming less and less civil to each other.

This article, "Be Nice or What? Fans of Dr. Forni Spread Civility" confirms my husband’s suspicions, with a movement to increase civility in different parts of the country. The article says it’s a "response to a perceived national crassness crisis." The "Civility Project," was inspired by a book, "Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct" written by Dr. P. M. Forni, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. While I’m not big on rules, the fact that the book was written and published points to something that’s happening in our society–a devaluing of human dignity in our interactions with each other.

I don’t know if we should blame the younger generation for all this coarseness. I do think Gen Y seems to be less sensitized to the language. Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year old founder of Facebook was reported to have business cards early in his career with the following: "I’m the CEO…., b—-."

Dan Pink’s new career advice book in the form of manga is meant to appeal to Gen Y. His marketing resonates with twenty somethings, in a form they want advice in (comic books that can be read in less than an hour), using their language (WTF?) From a marketing standpoint, I think Pink is right on target. And I can only guess that "WTF?" is commonly used language with this population, like BTW, LOL, and IMO are in email.

I watch very little network television. I was surprised recently to see a show called "The Biggest Loser," about people competing to lose the most weight. A nice play on words AND do we really have to create a tone of debasement to attract viewers to a television show?

In a conversation with a Baby Boomer sports writer, he talked about how many of today’s columnists have a "gotcha" mindset in their writing. They are snarky, snide, without the heartfulness of yesterday’s crusty newspaper men. Sarcasm and cynicism sells. Kindness and dignity don’t.

Maybe it’s just adolescent flippancy that I’m observing–something that happens with every generation. I can only hope.