Bad Language and Youngsters (Term 1 Blog: Teenage and social issues)

In this article, a 17-year-old teen is punished by her school for using vulgarities to complain about school administrators on her blog. In response to this, her lawyer argued that she should not have been reprimanded, claiming that schools should not regulate “off-campus speech” such as blogs.

Vulgarities have found their way into nearly every youngster’s vocabulary nowadays. If you pay attention to the conversation of some stranger schoolmates, chances are you will find their sentences peppered with profanities. Vulgarities that teenagers use come in a wide variety of forms – four-letter words and even Hokkien expletives are two common examples. Furthermore, teenagers use them everywhere – in everyday exchanges, when playing football, during MSN conversations…

One reason why I think youngsters are fond of using such crude lingo is to let go of the anger and stress within them. But aren’t there many other ways to do so (for example punching your pillow)? Whatever the case is, I feel that swearing still can never be justified.

Another reason why teenagers curse and swear freely is probably because they think it is cool to do so. I beg to differ. Not only is it a sin to swear (swearing only shows how filthy you are within), it can also land you in deep trouble. Remember the Member of Parliament who muttered expletives during the Parliament sitting? The consequences were severe and embarrassing. The 17-year-old teenager mentioned in this article is yet another fitting example of the undesirable results of using such dirty words.

Speaking of that teenager, one can conclude that blogs are another platform for us youngsters to complain about life. And with that comes the filthy language. It is not uncommon to find authors who express their feelings through vulgarities. These irresponsible bloggers seem to totally forget that their blog is posted for everyone to read. To further substantiate this point, here is an excerpt from the instructions on how to write this English Blog that you are reading now:

“Note that your blog is posted in the public domain and that you are accountable for everything you write. Recall cases of bloggers who have not been responsible and thus suffer a public backlash.”

I thus disagree with the schoolgirl’s lawyer, for the teenager is fully responsible for what she posts on her blog.

Blogs are not the only online resource for finding expletives. Take a closer look at your MSN contact list, for example. I found at least four contacts with unwholesome language embedded in their display names. Other examples include popular social networking websites such as “Friendster” and “Facebook”. In short, foul language is rampant among youngsters. They do not care if other strangers read it. It is no wonder then that so many are getting into trouble in this way.

How, then, could this be prevented? There is probably only one answer: self-control. It is entirely up to ourselves to decide whether we want to swear or not. And if you do not swear, do not start, for habits are difficult to break. It was probably this bad habit that landed the blogger (and MP) into trouble; you do not want to be the next victim, do you?

Watch your tongue!

(500 words)

The article can be accessed here: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/05/america/Student-Speech.php

P.S. Sorry about the paragraphing; it is supposed to have a "2-finger spacing" at the
start of each paragraph but I could not get it to do so.