Curse words trendy language amongst teenagers

Think about it for a second: How many curse words do you use per day?

How many curse words do you hear your friends utter during inane conversation?

It seems the trend now is to use curse words as filler for "um" or "like."

The teenage and college vernacular has changed due to a variety of influences, such as television, movies, the internet and video games.

Words like these have become a norm in conversation for younger generations.

Older generations may not understand the use of this language because they were raised in an environment completely different than the one we live in today, but younger generations accept this new vocabulary and it has become ingrained in everyday conversation.

"It's conversational swearing", says Timothy Jay, a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a leading scholar of cursing in the United States.

Teenagers use these expletives as a form of expression, which may explain why the trend has picked up.

He estimates that the average adolescent uses 80 to 90 swear words a day.

While the term 'average adolescent' is vague, it is used to describe factors such as demographic, age, environment, education, and income that fit the norm.

Middle class teenagers (from my personal experience) who receive a normal education in the public school system are the ideal candidates for the 'average' adolescent.

Let us not factor out that higher or lower classes, those of different economic prosperity, and those without proper education may swear more or less than the 'average' adolescent.

Environment affects a person's vocabulary just as strongly as the people around them who curse.

Television influences people's use of certain words, especially if that television show is popular with many demographics.

Television shows such as Family Guy, South Park, Mind of Mencia, and even regular stand up comedy specials on Comedy Central have become more and more riddled with expletives.

A perfect example is South Park: the "S" word was used over 100 times during one episode (it even had a counter in the top left corner of the screen to keep track).

Though most of these expletives are censored by the FCC, they still retain their power over their audiences.

Children have more malleable minds than adults, which may explain why the use of curse words has increased amongst younger generations.

If it is considered 'cool' to curse, and is even condoned or idealized on television, what is to stop children from using the same language?

While television, the Internet, and video games may influence the language a teen uses (or make them more comfortable using it) parent's language habits have the biggest influence on their children.

Timothy Jay mentions this in his research, stating that children become aware of their parents use of words as soon as they learn how to speak.

Jay says that "At a young age, they're attentive to emotions. When you're swearing to be funny or when you're angry that just draws them right to it."

Children are very perceptive to the emotional mood of their parents, and that includes the language they use around children.

This can lead to the perception that swearing is okay in certain situations (i.e. to be funny or when they're angry).

Parents need to be dually cautious around children, monitoring the television they are exposed to, what they look at on the internet, and even the language their friends use while present.

While parents can do as much as possible to try and prevent their child from cursing, they cannot prevent them from being exposed to a variety of different cultural influences during their growth into an adult.

The best thing a parent can do is explain the importance of not cursing, and hope that the lesson sticks.

This includes not cursing around your children, even if you are in a heightened state of emotion.

Children ultimately will have to make the decision for themselves whether or not they will follow in the footsteps of their generation.