It has been said about our modern society that we are more offended by curse words and obscene gestures than we are of war, famine and disease. I am therefore putting myself at extreme risk of falling into this category as I have quite a few choice things to say on the subject of swearing. Let me first make it clear that I am fully aware that life is hard and that sometimes itjust feels good to cuss out the days troubles. But I'm not here to write about what swearing says about your day. I'm here to write about what swearing says about you.
I grew up with a father who swore. A lot. Even when the swearing wasn't directed at me it sent a clear message: I'm angry and someone had better do something about it fast. He's improved a lot over the years but those angry words still echo in my ears and I find myself asking. Who was the child back then? Me or him? Many people feel that swearing drives their point, to me it shows a gross lack of self control. It screams: "I cant think of good enough words so I'm just going to use bad ones!" If you want to make your feelings known then take time to know them for yourself before you go spewing them out in a string of profanities.
Even in a society where swearing is mixed in to virtually every form of media there's no getting around the fact that swearing just isn't professional. Try dropping a couple of F-bombs at your next interview and see where it gets you. In a work setting communication is vital and having the air filled with obscenities hinders productivity for many people. Just because you or even maybe your boss is comfortable with it doesn't mean that everyone else is. Cussing in any setting for many people portrays you as someone who is tough, a person who doesn't give a care. People around you may see that as intimidating, others see it as just plain vulgar. Either way for those of us who try to keep our vocabulary g-rated it makes things awkward.
If people find bodily excrement and reproductive activities gross to look at, what makes you think that we want them in our ears? Or then again in our mouths? Call me sensitive but that's how I see it. But can you imagine a world where we actually met our bad days with positive and uplifting words rather than derogatory and obscene expressions? In a world like that we might actually be able to do something about our situations rather than just curse at everyone and everything within ear shot. So please, engage the brain before the mouth is activated.
