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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Just a Bus Driver...

A while ago, when I still rode on the school bus, there was a kindergartener who shared the stop with me. His mom and my mom became relatively friendly. Once, after there was some issue with the bus driver, his mother said, "That bus driver thinks he's so great - he's just a f**king bus driver!" Right in front of her child. I kid you not.

When I first heard it, I completely did not process for a few seconds, I was so shocked that she would say such an extremely strong word in front of her five-year-old child. (She also had a three-year-old in the house.) Once I did process what she said, I was shocked and appalled. Wasn't she at all afraid that her child would repeat what she said? Did she really want her child to walk around cursing out the world with a word like the f bomb?

While there are many people who feel there are no problems with cursing, most feel that you have to curb your tongue around children, since bad words are simply inappropriate for little ones. I feel that cursing is inappropriate for all people, but especially when there's a child around. (I talk about this on the Bleep! site on the Little Children and Cursing page.)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Cursing on YouTube

One of my old friends recently started uploading a few YouTube videos of herself. I haven't had contact with her in a while, but since I subscribe to her channel, the videos got sent directly into my inbox. Her first video was just of her talking about herself, and she casually used the s and f words as she spoke. Her second video was of her with some friends, and they were all just casually throwing a lot of bad words into conversation. The third was a list of things that annoy her (she used another, less savory word, however), and she used some bad words that were completely unnecessary.

Honestly, I was a little bit horrified. I knew that she cursed when I wasn't around, but still, it really surprised me when I heard her use such strong bad words in such a casual, unneeded way. I didn't think that much of her in the first place (there's a reason we haven't had contact in a while), but after seeing these videos, I really have no intention of making contact with her again.

Additionally, it's a really poor decision to curse so indiscriminately online. If you say a curse word out loud, people will always remember it; however, they don't have "proof" that you cursed. Once it's online, however, it will be there FOREVER, and there is no way you can erase it. I just hope that my friend doesn't come to regret all those YouTube videos she made as a kid using such horrible words.