The proper %!&@ing use of profanity
I really was brought up not to swear in mixed company. After you hang out with the same people for awhile sooner or later someone slips and the next thing you know everyone is throwing expletives around like a bunch of sailors on shore leave. That’s ok though, because I always thought that was a sign of comfort, like you felt good around those people. Honestly, I get a similar vibe off the GWJ podcasts.
I don’t use profanity much on-line. I just don’t. I don’t know those people, I’m not comfortable around them. I think it sounds incredibly immature to just say fsck every 15 seconds.
Not to mention, there is no context. You can’t just drop an expletive for the hell of it. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s incredibly poor communication. You are trying to do what? Share your frustration? Your inadequacy? Your lingering self doubt that you’re spending too much time on-line while everyone else is out partying, getting drunk, and having sex? Don’t feel too bad. I’m married so I don’t party or get drunk anymore either.
I knew a guy who served in the Marines. His use of profanity was damn near poetic. He understood the use of profanity as a way to drive a point home. He could use swear words like commas and it seemed natural.
I get on Live and these guys just sound pathetic. I feel like I’m hanging out with a bunch of 5th graders who are learning how to swear when their parents aren’t around. Yes, Johnny, you’re such a big boy dropping f-bombs when your mother isn’t around to smack you upside the head.
It’s not the profanity that bothers me so much, it’s the utter lack of knowledge of how to use it. Most people I’ve met on Live use profanity with about the same proficiency as their first attempt to unclasp a bra.
Funny how the (few) women I’ve met on-line don’t seem to devolve into foul-mouthed cretins.
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December 11th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Swearing seems to be an mystical online cure-all, like the pitch used to sell a bottle of snake oil sold from a horse-drawn cart. Feel inadequate? Swear at them, want to come off as tough? Swear! Want to distract people from valid points in a conversation? By golly start dropping the f-bomb sir!
The lack of context? Nobody seems to grasp that and eventually it’s just a sea of meaningless profanity where everyone blurs in to being the same exact putz you’ve faced before.
My brother-in-law plays chess on Yahoo games at pretty high levels, even there people who are playing what is universally accepted as a game of wits start dropping strings of curse words and lewd comments. It’s the biggest cliche and that is one of the many reasons I just don’t swear all that often.
Swearing has almost totally replaced sarcasm which I think is a true loss.
Most often swearing is used as taunts or an attempt to get you to screw up, I never understood why gamers online are so fascinated with cheat codes and “tipping the scales” in their favor in any way they can. Whats so wrong with sportsmanship and a sense of actual accomplishment? Trash talking is fine but I rarely see it, whereas I see a lot of juvenile insults and sore losers. I love to talk trash.
Oh and for the record let me just say this to all parents. I am not terribly worried if your kid hears me drop some mild profanity so please release some of that diamond creating pressure on your sphincter over your little treasures. I don’t run around dropping f-bombs in front of people’s five-year olds with reckless abandon but I do on rarely let slip with something more mundane. There are few things that will drive me to actually use profanity more than faux shock and horror over something that’s only purpose is to satisfy your deluded image as the perfect parent.
A friend once told me something apt about his lack of desire to play games online:
“I really have no interest in participating in something where the first and last words you hear is “c*ocksucker”
I try to limit my interaction with idiots, not pay hundreds of dollars so I can spend my evening with clones of the same exact idiot. You could replace the dialogue these folks display with a bot that generates strings of profanity and who would be the wiser?
December 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
“Funny how the (few) women I’ve met on-line don’t seem to devolve into foul-mouthed cretins.”
HAHA, true story! It is annoying to see a bunch of guys trying to measure their e-penis based on the amount of profanity they can pepper into a single sentance.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I’m going to have to remember “e-penis” for future reference.