I’m just going to put this out there – I hate swearing.
I think it shows a complete lack of creativity, a lack of manners and class, and is a very lazy way to communicate. If you can call it communicating.
I very rarely swear. Something truly awful has to happen for me to curse. I was raised at a time when it wasn’t OK to swear, and the threat “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap” was very real.
So, I’m perplexed by how much swearing goes on both in person and online these days. I flinch every time I open my Facebook page and see someone swearing in a post. It’s like an assault on my senses. Truly, there must be a better way for you to get your point across than using curse words? Truly?
Yes, I have unfriended someone over their abundant use of curse words. I think that’s fair.
What most distresses me, however, is how some people think nothing of using filthy language in front of children. This was brought home to me recently by a post on the Facebook page for the community in which I live in Airdrie. The poster was upset because roofers working on her condo complex were dropping F-bombs like they were going out of style – she has two young children at home who were hearing every word.
That’s not OK. Following the suggestions of many who replied to her post, she spoke to a representative of the roofing company and the language stopped. As a company, that kind of behaviour shouldn’t be tolerated and I’m glad action was taken to put an end to it. I applaud her for standing up for good manners.
I hate hearing younger kids in the park across from my house using foul language. Someone needs to get out the soap.
I also don’t like being at a Calgary Roughnecks game – lacrosse being my sport of choice – and hearing people swearing. There are children in attendance – and, frankly, I’m also offended. Keep it PG, please.
Mostly, though, it just seems to me to show such a lack of creativity. Surely there are better words, more inventive phrases you could use to make your point?
A member of our newsroom has come up with her very own swear word – doodlecrumb – that offends no one and shows a very definite inventive use of language. What does it mean? I have no idea but it provides the same emotional release for her as using the F-word would.
My preferred curse word is “freaking.” A much kinder, gentler F-word, don’t you think?
The only way we’re going to stop this decline in the English language is to stand up against those who fling curse words around like they’re nothing. I applaud that Facebook poster who asked the roofing company to tell their workers to “knock it off.” She took a stand and made that company accountable. It was good to see. I think what this means is the next time one of my Facebook friends swears in a post, I will have to stand up for my convictions and tell them to “watch their language.”
Now, I know that curse words are just words. But they’re not pretty words and our society has imbued them with a meaning that isn’t acceptable for polite society. Or at least it used to not be. I hope we haven’t sunk so low that we think using them in regular speech is OK.
