Burning philosophical issue...

I overheard some young people talking recently and noted that the more conventional verbs of communication have been replaced by the verb ‘to be.’ For instance it’s not uncommon to hear such sentences as:

I was ‘Get out of here.’
He was like ‘What are you doing?’

Now, what I want to know is whether this is indicative of the increasing reluctance to admit ontological considerations as constitutive of the essence of personhood? Have these young people reached a greater awareness of the symbolic nature of human existence and our capacity to express meaning in the manner in which we live out life? Are the distinctions between being, knowing and comminication drifting into oblivion? By virtue of authentic existence, does the barrier between message and messenger cease to be? What are the implications for Christology and a Theology of the Incarnation?