The trouble with blogging for years is that you sometimes forget about blogposts you created long ago. In that regard, the"Search" box in the top lefthand corner can be very useful. It is impossible to remember everything we write and after all, this is my eleventh year as a blogger.
With a cup of Italian coffee to hand and snooker players McManus and Ding on the television, I thought I might write down some thoughts about swearing. Unsurprisingly, I discovered that I had devoted two posts to the topic back in 2007. Go here and here if you're interested.
But what I would like to comment on today is the habitual use of swear words in blogging. Most blogs I enjoy tend not to include any swear words - blogs like "Eagleton Notes", "Kitchen Connection", "Shadows and Light", "Adrian's Images", "From My Mental Library" and "Shooting Parrots". However, there are some blogs I like to visit where swear words crop up frequently - either in the posts themselves or in the comments that follow. Whenever I encounter this bad language, I just think "Why?" The swear words tend to jar and distract. They stand out like sore thumbs and as our parents may have said long ago, such words are generally unnecessary.
I know that there are lots of bloggers out there who will agree with me about this matter but others who will no doubt carry on spouting expletives like oppressed industrial workers. I guess it is their right to use foul language if they want to and of course one of the lovely things about blogging is that we can write pretty much what we want with whatever words we choose to utilise.
With that very freedom in mind, I am now raising my head above the parapet to say to the swearers - please don't do it! Generally speaking, swearing isn't nice and if you must use a swear word please make sure that it is essential to the argument, comment or account you are in the process of expressing. I thank you in anticipation of your kind forbearance and humbly request that you do not use swear words in any comments you wish to add to this post.
I understand your point of view YP and I would like to oblige but cannot promise anything....sometimes effinandjeffin just feels right.
ReplyDelete"effinandjeffin" is a lively made up word and I like it!
DeleteI'll refer you to this.
ReplyDeleteBilly Connelly.
I agree with you when it comes to the written word but It doesn't grate with me I just prefer not to swear.
Golly! That was an old clip Adrian. There was Rick Parfitt of Status Quo smoking a fag in the audience and I saw Bob Hoskins and Ian St John too. Billy Connolly was a great comedian. Of course he used to swear on stage but he wasn't blogging. That's something different - just like the roadtrip shows he has narrated - no swearing in them. Horses for courses.
DeleteI rather have less readers and commentators than swearing ones. Fortunately, the good people who read my blog and frequently leave comments are not of the swearing kind - at least not when I'm around (of course I don't know what they do in the offline world, or elsewhere online).
ReplyDeleteLike you, I think that very few situations call for the use of swear words, and commenting on a blog is certainly not one of them.
But part of the problem may be that some people don't see the words they use as swear words, because they have become so common in everyday use.
I think your last point is probably right Meike. Some of the swearing bloggers must not be aware that their use of bad language is offensive to others. If they realised it was offensive perhaps they would cut it out.
DeleteI absolutely cannot stand swearing. I always say 'my husband doesn't swear in front of me and I will not put up with it at work''.... the young ones are very taken aback but don't swear in fromt of me.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you just have to make a stand or things will slide.
DeleteI agree with you YP. I have never been one for swearing. When I met the farmer almost twenty six years ago, I said to him one day that I had never heard him swear. Well I never swear in front of ladies was his reply and it holds good to this day. And I respect him for it.
ReplyDeleteYou found a good 'un in your farmer Mrs Weaver but I could say the same to him!
DeleteYou're absolutely right YP. There really doesn't seem to be any point - especially on a blog, but it seems to be a rather childish fashion to swear with almost every other word, with some bloggers.
ReplyDeleteAs I said to The Librarian above, some of the swearing bloggers appear to have no appreciation of the fact that many readers find swearing offensive.
DeleteI took up swearing quite late in life. I blame it on binge watching all six series of the Sopranos, back to back....
ReplyDeleteI doubt that the Scottish Episcopal Church would receive that news with a sunny smile Wanda! Wash your mouth out with soap suds you bad girl!
DeleteI never heard my father swear and the thought of my mother swearing was unthinkable. My mother taught me that those who used habitual swear words were simply disguising a lack of vocabulary. I'm inclined to agree. Of course, occasionally, an expletive escapes most people's lips these days and I'm as prone as anyone when I have an accident. However that is in the heat of the moment and, except for particular affect, there is little justification in blogging in my view. I don't think that I read any blogs with habitual swearing.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about "particular effect". Although I don't like to see swearing in blogs, there might be occasional times when a judiciously inserted swear word could be very much the right word to choose.
ReplyDeletepi"s off
ReplyDeletex
I see you ignored my final request John. Perhaps you could instead explain why you are prone to swearing.
DeleteMy lovely grandmother used to say that using swear words not only showed your lack of proper vocabulary but, more importantly, your lack of good breeding! This opinion was espoused by her from a four-flat tenement in a lowly part of Brooklyn. But she also was quick to say that you should and could have good breeding no mater where you were from.
ReplyDeleteAnd she was so right Mama Bear. It is not about money or where you come from.
DeleteI don't swear on the blog but orally I'm a big sinner. I agree that wearing adds nothing to the thought or argument one is trying to make.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I cannot imagine a nice guy like you swearing Red! You are a dark horse sir.
DeleteI swear I have THAT very same brass sign, above my wall telephone :)
ReplyDelete~Jo
I guess you need it there just to remind you - in case friends or family phone you up!
DeleteI don't swear when blogging...there have been a couple of times I have done so when it was necessary as part of a story...when relating what was actually said...and my description is integral to the reality of the scene being described (as in my post about finding the 18 feet long (or longer) monster of a python on my bed when I was manager of the resort on Hinchinbrook Island. You can bet your bottom dollar I let out a few suitably descriptive words that night...and I didn't leave them out when writing my story about that episode. When I found that snake, I certainly didn't say - "Oh! Look a snake! Please get off my bed, snake. Please leave the way you entered. Thank you."
ReplyDeleteGenerally, 99.9% of the my posts will not include swearing, but that doesn't mean I don't drop the F-bomb in real life. I do, but I know my audience. There are times that it is the only word that correctly expresses the emotions of the moment!
I learned to use it and discovered how much it eased the pain and/or frustration of the moment when cooking in commercial kitchens, in restaurants etc.
Somehow in the pressure and stress of service when you have a room or more filled with hungry, sometimes impatient diners - if I burnt my hand/s or cut myself with a very sharp kitchen knife; or got caught halfway between the oven and bench-top desperately clasping onto a very hot, very heavy roasting pan loaded not only with a roast of some kind or whatever else, but also hot oil or sauce, not having enough padding between my hands and the hot pan..."Oh! Damn!" or "Gee! Whizz! That hurts!"....just didn't seem to do the job of easing the pain and stress.
However, there is a time and a place...and a reason...and I believe my blog, most of the time, is not the place...nor is it the place, or my right to do so when I leave my responses on the blogs of others.
We concur. In real life I am also prone to insert the odd swear word. My electric garden strimmer has been on the receiving end of torrents of bad words. When the nylon line once again fouls up, I don't exclaim "Oh golly gosh, not again you mischievous item!"
DeleteIn contrast, when writing to the world or commenting on other people's blogs, a strong voice inside me says "No!" whenever I feel the urge to swear. It just doesn't seem right or necessary. When writing I measure my words but like you if I was relating a tale in which swearing had occurred I wouldn't feel too awkward about faithfully reporting it.
Greetings, YP. I just came across your blog because you left a comment on mine. Thank you! I never know who's reading. How did you find the blog? You seem to have a wide readership. I agree with you about the swearing. It's distracting, and takes away from the writing. I also feel this way about exclamation points, by the way. They're overused. I'm going to read more of your posts. Your words flow.
ReplyDeletewww.woodlandtravels.blogspot.com
I am sorry Regina but I am 99% sure that I did not leave a comment on your blog. You judge that I "overuse" exclamation marks but I disagree. They are always used judiciously for deliberate effect. Besides, exclamation marks and sexual swear words hardly belong in the same bag.
DeleteOh dear. I didn't mean that you overuse exclamation points. Sorry - misunderstanding. I simply meant in general, people tend to overuse them. I found your blog because of a friendly comment you wrote on my post about Laos.
DeleteYP. My blog is woodland travels. It's under my husband's acct., and my name is connected w/ my preschool classsroom account.
DeleteI don't give swearing much thought when blogging. I might include the odd profanity for effect, but as a general rule, swearing rarely adds anything to the written narrative, usually the reverse in fact.
ReplyDeleteThe spoken word is different and I have no objection to the inclusion of effin and jeffin in quotes if that makes them more authentic.
Away from the keyboard, I do swear, but not much. In life, as in blogging, the profane has much more impact when used sparingly.
"the profane has much more impact when used sparingly" is a remark that surely belongs in a quotations dictionary.
DeleteI can imagine you swearing in NHS consultative meetings. "Shut the **** up Sir Cyril and ****ing listen to me you fat ****!"
I can swear, I do swear, in fact I have a wide range of swear words in more than one language however, I never use them on blogs at all for there seems to be little point in doing so. For I can express my ire clearly without resorting to bad language.
ReplyDeleteWhen we have to think and weigh our words we don't need to swear. Swearing is for the here and now - rather thoughtless and immediate.
DeleteI'm pretty sure I've blogged a swear word now and then, but to me -- as you said -- they mostly just shock and aren't necessary. A good writer ought to be able to come up with a better, more accurate and pithy alternative, right?
ReplyDeleteYes that certainly is right Steve and I can't remember you ever swearing old chap.
DeleteYes that certainly is right Steve and I can't remember you ever swearing old chap.
Delete