I believe giving actually comes from 90s gay/drag culture, and like most of these isn’t really as obtuse as it seems. It’s just word omission. It’s just shorthand for “it’s giving me thoughts of” or “it’s giving me memories of”, basically (okay, admittedly I’m extracted a little bit here).

Here’s an example that I hope helps: imagine your friend or romantic partner comes to you wearing a new tweed jacket they’ve excited about, but all you can see when you look at it is memories of your tweed-clad college professor. You might respond with “i dunno, it’s giving college prof,” which is just shorthand for “I dunno, it’s giving me flashbacks to memories of my college professor.”

Personally that seems a fairly functional evolution of language in the way it always evolves, not the degradation you seem to be finding, but of course I can only offer my own singular opinion on the topic, so do with that what you want