#@*&%$!!!
Teen swearing up. SacBee:
Adolescents and preteens are swearing more publicly than ever – especially at school, experts say.
It’s conversational swearing – in the hallways and in the classroom – that is on the rise, says Timothy Jay, one of the leading scholars on cursing in the United States.
Teens are more likely to drop casual expletives, or “fillers,” than the generation before them and have more trouble adjusting their conversation to fit their audience. That means adults – especially strangers who cannot sanction the teens – hear more of the same language that the teens’ friends hear, says Jay, author of “Why We Curse” (John Benjamins, $35, 328 pages) and “Cursing in America” (John Benjamins, $66, 272 pages).
He estimates that the average adolescent uses roughly 80 to 90 swear words a day.
“Elementary school teachers report that children are using more offensive language at school than they have in the past,” says Jay, who is compiling data for a study he will complete in the fall examining preteens and swearing. “They have been breaking the rules at school more frequently in the last 10 years.”
I betcha workplace swearing is up, too. I wouldn’t know, rhough, because I work in a newsroom environment, where studies indicate swearing levels historically always have been really fucking high.
Topics: assorted shit
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:32 pm on Sunday, February 24, 2008
3 Responses to “#@*&%$!!!”
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February 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Hoo boy, is that ever right. I’ve been in my grandchildrens’ schools, and while I don’t consider myself very shockable, some of these kids can make me squirm. It’s not the words themselves. It’s the casual way the kids use them.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:32 am
[...] Jules Crittenden swears that there is more swearing in public by these #@*&%$!!! kids today. Well, I’ll be #@*&%$!!!-ed. [...]
February 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
[...] by Stephen Green on 25 Feb 2008 at 06:10 am He’s got that goddamn right. Bookmark: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new [...]