AUDIO: THIS GOSH DANG PANDEMIC HAS US SWEARING MORE
America is swearing more these days, darn it. Several indicators say it’s so:
– Denver-based Inversoft Incorporated has a profanity-filtering software called CleanSpeak, which is used by companies that host online communities and other discussion forums. The company says the volume of filtered words has more than tripled in the past 18 months. Holy Shatner!
– Also, according to news agency Storyful, uses of the f-word, the s-word, the a-word, or related variations, rose 41% from 2019 to 2021 on Facebook and 27% on Twitter. Well, son-of-a-biscuit maker!
– Michael Adams, a (*cunning) linguist at Indiana University in Bloomington, blames it on pandemic stress, the melding of personal and professional spheres, and an exhausted slide toward casualness. He says it’s “a perfect swearing storm.”
* I guess a perfect storm of swearing would be when high pressure meets low manners.
* Also, a lot of people never went back to normal speech after seeing “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
* When I first read this all I could say was “WTF”.
* You’ll know it’s a crisis when the National Spelling Bee doesn’t use any words over four letters.
* At least some people are trying to reign this in with “Let’s Go Brandon!”
CLIP: Even if you don’t want to air it in relation to this story, here’s a song parody for your amusement we did a while back about on-air DJ profanity called “Fines.” You’ll know the song.
