I’m curious: Is society getting to the point where no one is capable of expressing themselves without “dropping an ‘f-bomb’” or some other curse word?
Everywhere I walk across campus, every time I watch television or a movie, and even while I am out and about at various public places, I can’t go a whole day without hearing the “f-word” or some other type of profanity.
I’ll be honest, occasionally when I get angry or annoyed, I’ll slip up and let a choice word or two fly. But I make sure I watch my language in every situation. What really irks me is that people commonly toss words of profanity around as commonly as they say words like “hello.”
When I’m walking to class, I hear people spewing out profanity like there’s no tomorrow. It makes me wonder if people who talk like that realize how unintelligent they sound.
Like I’ve said, I am not saying that I don’t always use profanity – I certainly don’t like to, but every now and then I just slip up. But just hearing the “f-word” used once too many times burns my ears, and the ears of many others, I’m sure.
Recently, I watched the movie “Funny People” featuring well-known actors Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill. Twenty minutes into the movie I was blown away by the characters’ constant use of the “f-word” in nearly every sentence.
Besides the fact that I felt the movie didn’t have a very good story line, I was completely turned off by the incessant profanity. I can’t take a film seriously if every other word the characters say is the more explicit version of “fudge.”
Decades ago, the use of profanity was taboo, and certainly not acceptable to use in casual conversation. Now, it seems like it’s perfectly okay to use in any place, at any time and in front of any one. It makes me think that either public morals or intelligence has taken a nose-dive in recent years. Maybe both have done so.
I’m not saying that all people who curse are actually unintelligent – what I am saying is that if one uses a certain profane word constantly, it’s as if he or she doesn’t have any other words in his or her vocabulary.
In my younger teenage years, I thought I was pretty cool spitting out every “bad word” in the book as frequently as possible. However, I soon realized what kind of problems my use of wordage was causing me.
I got dirty looks from strangers, my family, and it made me feel awful about myself. When one realizes that a potty mouth isn’t so popular, does he or she feel the same way as well? I hope so.
The media may be to blame for our potty mouths. It’s much more widely acceptable today, obviously. Take into consideration Vice President Joe Biden’s recent “big deal” “f-bomb” drop at President Obama’s speech regarding the health care reform bill victory. That caused a bit of controversy, but not nearly as much as it would have, say, twenty or so years ago.
I, and I hope many others as well, plan to take the time to examine the words I include in my repertoire. I know I had to flush my potty mouth at one point, and sometimes I still do. n