This Generation of Teens

Exactly. And that's why your only classification of what words should be avoided is what you've been told. So if you were back hundreds of years ago, you'd be dropping the "f-bomb" and the "s-word" in regular conversation? You wouldn't be offended by it, right?

(Actually, I never said I felt that overuse of any word is necessarily okay.)

These are just more examples of what we've been trained to find offensive.

I think you're taking my point too far. I only said that society tells us what we should be offended by. People are making it sound like I'm telling people to go out and swear and offend everyone in their path. Sometimes I think people are taking this too personally.

Really, if you sit down and think really hard and break everything down to its most basic component you'll see that all these things are what we're trained to react to in different ways. Everything from cussing to picking our noses in public. I'm not telling you what your morals should be. I just think we should all at least question what's going on around us instead of just taking things as they are.

Not everyone was raised the way you were raised and remember that the way you speak may also be "boring" to others. It doesn't give them the right to tell you to speak differently. What's "coarse" and "vulgar" to you might be perfectly acceptable to them.

I'd bet that if you were raised in a world that regularly used words you presently consider "vulgar" or "coarse", you'd never think twice about them. That's all I'm saying--we use and avoid (and get offended by) words that we're taught to use and avoid.

 

Hi Barbara! If I recall correctly that was the topic about the Samuel P. Huntington book "Who are We." It's a thought-provoking read.

 

Sonngyuyen, are you Poultry too? Interesting. If I were raised to say F this or S that 30 times per paragraph, I agree that I'd think it was perfectly normal. People do get confused about the norm, in that it is a quantitative judgement as opposed to a qualitative one. Question for you: does that make any way a good way to be raised, simply because it exists? If girl children are sold at puberty because it is the norm (as it is in some places, so the girl children can eat), does that make it a purely neutral and equally interchangeable norm? Again, I think you're arguing a point for the sake of it. Language by itself, reduced to mere sound, is indeed meaningless. Hearing those sounds with comprehension will produce basic judgements. It is an inescable part of comprehension: we will FEEL a certain way about every stimulus in life. Have fun continuing the discussion.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I see your point and I'll retract my "no absolutes" statement. Thanks again.

What I should have said is that the list of bad words and what's considered "bad" changes on a continual basis.

Right, but there's a double standard with some words. We don't care when someone says, "Oh, drat!" but we do care when someone says, "Oh, sh-t!"

I agree with you 110% on that.

You took the smurfin' words right out of my smurfin' head!

I, too, had a good time--and learned a lot from you and others on here. I don't think this "debate" is going anywhere--at least not in the direction it's headed.

If you consider sitting in Northern VA traffic "enjoyment of the outdoors" then I had a blast today.

 

Hi Carol, and it was a good discussion! Goodnight for now.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

No, I'm using his computer, though. I forgot to login as myself.

No, I don't think that's acceptable at all.

But as I said before, I'm not saying what's right or wrong. I'm only saying that what we say or do or find acceptable is what we're taught is acceptable.

 

What about the substitute F words like freaking, fracking, etc.? Is one more politically correct saying freaking rather than F***ing? You hear freaking everywhere now...but doesn't it mean the same thing.

 

Of course it does...which is the bullsh-t of the whole thing. People substitute words for other words that express the same emotion, it's complete horsesh-t.

And as far as the 'if you curse, it shows ou have a limited vocabulary' argument goes...who sounds more limited in the vocabulary department: the guy using baby talk that says 'I feel like poo today' or the guy that says 'I feel like sh-t today'?

 

It is not so much the words we choose to say, it is more what is acceptable by the audience.

 

It is what we say and how we say it. I think one of the most powerful tools available is in fact the written word. Depending on one's choices of words you can paint a vivid picture down to the minute detail and have one feeling, seeing, smelling the picture or you can easily say a few quick words which someone may or may not fully comprehend...why? Because there's a good chance they will simply tune out because you either have not caught their interest or "oh no...more of that samo samo topic again."

However, as one who tries to be a responsible adult and set an example for others, I do try hard to be cognizant of what words I use, especially with youth. Back to the original topic, I think that the casual use of words defined as profanity (especially the "F" word) is not right and should not be viewed as a social norm!

 

Just last night, my family was eating at San Vito (yum!) and there were two teenage couples waiting for a table. One couple started showing a little PDA which escalated to as close to sex with your clothes on as you can get.

The boy had his hand in the rear of the girl's pants and underwear so deep, he would have reached China in short order. And the pants were those low-riders that all of the young ladies are wearing these days, so low that if they were an inch lower you could have seen her "doo-dah" (how's that for self-censorhsip?)

The girl returned his affections as she ran her hand across the front of his trousers as well.

I've seen less tongue on a giraffe at the zoo.

Luckily my younger children were seated in such a manner they could not see what was taking place.

Who knew San Vito had burlesque entertainment as well?

 

Ahhh.....the good ol' days of youth!!

 

The teen steriotypes lately are getting worse and worse. There are plenty of adults who curse just as much as these "bad teens" yet the teens get the fall for it.

Using TV and other mixed media is an all to convenient excuse for the increasing amount of problems with teens. Look who makes the media. Adults make the media, adults control the media, adults sell the media. If you want to get profanity stopped in teens and children and you say media is the problem, go to the source and go talk to the rich adults who make the media that the overwhelming public loves to see.
I'm a 15 year old teenager, a sophmore, and an honor student. I use profanity once and a while when It accidentally slips out. It's not bad, but these teens that spiked the post where just saying those words to draw people around them into their conversation and get things like this post. They where being just being rebellious. While I do agree that profanity is used a lot, it is not a very big problem at the school I attend.
I have been working ever since I was 13, I pay for everything but basic clothes, food, and the house bills. Everything else I want I must pay for. My car, it's insurance, and everything relating to what I do is paid for by me. I am currently saving up for College (Harvard!). The overwhelming majority of teens in ashburn are spoiled, arrogant, and cocky and will most likely never work a day in their lives until after college. That's ashburn for you, live with it. The nonexistent rich parents who throw money at the kids to keep them entertained is the reason for the drugs, profanity, and bad grades in the teens today. The teens assume that the money will be there their whole lives, and just take life and throw it away and get in trouble because their parents can afford the lawyers to sue the school when they do something wrong.
Not all teens are bad, it's the adults who are casting the bad steriotypes. Get to know teens before you make some sort of judgement about their hair or about their lives after school. Just because they have a lot doesn't mean their rich or spoiled; people just assume that my parents hand everything to me, never even considering that it was bought with hard earned money from a job. I am sick of getting treated like a stupid, irresponsible, lazy teen. Next time you see a teen who has a job in ashburn, treat him good because he could have just asked his parents for the money.

 

Hey honor student, it is "stereotype". Good luck with Harvard.

 

Hey now, treat him good.

 

15 with a car and insurance?
I will give you the benefit of the doubt and treat you "well"

Just bustin' chops here. Keep up the good work. Make your parents proud.

 

Wow ... you sound like I did back in 19xx when I was your age. You are one of the few who sound like they have a level head on their shoulders, realize that their parents aren't made of money, and actually want to help out with the family finances.

Good luck and God bless.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

I think Fire is a prime example of the results of parents who encourage their kids to develop a good work ethic. Sounds like he works hard and probably plays hard too. Even though school should develop the connection between hard work and rewards some kids, teens and even adults don't get it. I have adult friends and family who were great students (advanced degrees) but who are performing poorly in their careers (I suspect)in part because they did not have jobs in their teens.

I was raised in Chevy Chase, MD and both of my parents worked outside the home. They let me know early on that I had to earn any "extras" on my own. From age 13 I delivered the Times every afternoon and weekend morning to my neighbors. When it snowed, some agreed to wait till I came and cleared their drives. I made over $100 every time it snowed. My senior year summer I worked at a McDonalds in NE Washington. After a couple of months, a thug customer physically threatened me and I quit because management feared for my safety. The next month I went to college and worked hard enough to make the Deans list because I knew I didnt want to work in fast food ever again. Those teen jobs taught me how to be responsibile to my customers, entrepenurship, and the value of higher education.

Although now I can afford to give my kids just about anything they want, I try to exchange their work (good grades at school or chores) for the unnecessary goods or service I buy them. Developing a good work ethic in your kids at an early age is good because then they will figure out enterprising ways to spend their free time on their own. Be it a lemonade stand, selling their toy collections on eBay, baby sitting, yard work, or a part time job, parents who raise kids with a good work ethic will increase the likelyhood that their kids will become successful adults.