Getting effing tired of bad language

It's time for one of my new pet peeves to make its presence felt. It's about language.

I am the first to admit that I can swear pretty well, when I want. to. But it seems to me that swearing is going to new lows these days.  Why is it that so many Facebook posts use the infamous F-word as a modifier for absolutely everything? Why do so many people feel the need to fill every sentence with F-this and F-that?

When has it become acceptable to call a friend, sister or even your mother a bitch or a whore (or ho — maybe they can't spell)? That is just plain disrespectful.

Even little kids are using filthy language, and they are (I hope!) too young to understand the meaning of the words they are using. Not that this surprises me, hearing how their parents talk.

I remember visiting a high school a few years ago and being shocked, not so much by the language being used, but by the fact that it was being used everywhere without anyone stopping it, and by the number of effing times these effing kids used this effing bad language in front of their effing teachers. (See what I mean?)

I expect these kids will be in for a shock when they enter the workplace and find out that this is not acceptable, and that it is harder to clean up their potty mouths than they thought it would be. While this might be allowed in some kinds of businesses, that is not always the case. In some offices, this kind of language would earn a reprimand or even worse.  If you are applying for a job, a filthy mouth could prevent you from being hired, or result in you not being kept on staff when your probation period on the job ends.

People don't seem to realize that using this kind of language makes them sound ignorant. Used too often, the shock value is gone anyway, so why do it?

Sure, my generation swore. We still do. But most of us had enough sense to pick our spots, so to speak. Cussing after catching your fingers in the door or dropping a load of textbooks on your foot was one thing. While not acceptable, it was still a case of "cause and effect" and not intended to offend anyone. Swearing at and around teachers, authority figures and parents was different. You learned not to do it because, for one thing, it just wasn't worth the punishment. Usually, one dose of being forced to wash your mouth out with soap (or, for me, watching someone else who was forced to do it, which was almost as disgusting) cleaned up a case of potty mouth real quick. If not, a second or third dose did the trick.

People are bound to pull out the "freedom of speech" card here. But you know what? Unless you are living in a cultural group where this is acceptable, talking like that will  just make you sound stupid, unimaginative, uneducated, disrespectful and bad-mannered to a lot of people.