Is this new, or is this just me? It seems a disturbingly large portion of my communication time lately is spent attempting to get a through a single sentence.

Me, in a meeting: I have a suggestion. If we take the engine out, we'll be able to repair the...

Him: Nothing's wrong with the engine! Haven't you been paying attention? There's a huge brown spot beneath the car when its parked! That doesn't typically indicate an engine problem.

Me: Um, could I please finish a sentence here? If we take the engine out, we'll be able to repair the oil pan, below it, which is probably what's leaking.

Him: Oh.

Okay: my response there needs a bit of tuning. But this seems to me to be happening more and more often, with disturbing regularity. The algorithm of the interrupter seems to be:

1. Assume the speaker is incompetent and wrong
2. Listen until about one clause is said
3. Pick several key words (ignoring the others) and arrange them into a clearly wrong assumption. Add clearly-unsaid things, if necessary. Mentally place this assumption into the speakers' mouth.
4. Repeat your incorrect assumption, amazed at how incompetent the speaker is! What kind of idiot would think that? (Never mind you just did.) Explain how wrong your the speaker's assumption is.
5. Move on quickly to other issues. Boy, is that guy rude for attempting to dominate the conversation by actually wanting to finish his own sentence!

These are not long, drawn-own paragraphs, mind you — usually they're not much longer than the sample sentence above. In the toughest cases, three or maybe even four medium-length sentences will be required. And sometimes I've had to try five or six times to get the entire thought out.

Me: In the car...

Person A: Where is the car, by the way? [huge discussion ensues]

Me, fifteen minutes later, after it is established the car is right where it belongs, in the parking lot: In the car is...

Person B: Yes, an engine. We know. You said that yesterday. [Discussion about engines ensues again.]

Me, another five minutes later: Er, as I was attempting to say... in the car, there is a tub of ice cream. I was going to ask permission to step out for a moment, and go get for you all, but it's now undoubtedly melted.

The ironic thing is, I don't actually care about being interrupted, usually. If you can finish my sentence correctly — or even remotely in the ballpark — I'm overjoyed the idea got across, and could care less about how it got there. But that seems so rare.

And I know I'm not alone: When I hear talk shows where anything even remotely controversial comes up, a significant volume of the calls will consist of "correcting" the host regarding things he clearly hasn't said.

I'd love to blame technology (Perhaps too many people have become used to short Twitter-like sentence fragments and headlines?) but I suspect the real problem is that peoples' inner dialogs have become so much louder, in their own ears, than the world around them. Maybe it's always been this way, and I'm just starting to notice, or maybe things really have shifted.