disTraction #151 - Swearing More? Blame It On The S#%$ Pandemic!

A well-researched article by Anne Marie Chaker of The Wall Street Journal sheds much light on this new development.

A man is on the board at his child’s school. Unexpectedly, he finds himself uttering a curse word. It happened when he and some of his fellow board members were touring impressive new classrooms.

“Holy shit,” he blurted out.

It’s not the kind of language he would have used in his pre-pandemic mode. To what does he attribute such an outburst? He says the two-year burden of the pandemic has caused him to lower his guard and made him more casual in his interactions. Part of it he attributes to Zoom. The old boundaries between work and home have been blurred. Formalities have been reduced, a reaction to spending hours in virtual meetings, staring into people’s kitchens and living rooms while their pets and children roam about. During difficult times, new foxholes are forged. It turns out that pandemic stress and the merging of personal and professional world, plus an exhausting slide toward a more casual lifestyle, are making many of us curse more.

Michael Adams is a linguist at Indiana University. He says we’re in “a perfect swearing storm.”

Indeed, we are. According to Storyful, a news and intelligence agency owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, mentions of  the F word, shit and a-hole, or related variations, rose 41% from full-year 2019 to 2021 through the end of November on Facebook and 27% on Twitter.

Another indicator is Denver-based Inversoft Inc.’s CleanSpeak profanity-filtering software. It’s used by companies that host online communities and other discussion forums. They report that the volume of filtered words has more than tripled in the last 18 months.

According to their CEO, Don Bergal, “People are becoming more aggressive in their use of profane and sexually explicit terms.”

Richard Stephens is a psychologist at Keele University in the U.K. He has studied the effect of emotional language on pain management. He believes swearing can activate a natural defense against pain. His 2009 study found that undergrads were able to submerge their hands in ice water for 40 seconds longer, on average, when they cursed repeatedly. Cursing causes stimulation, which activates part of the nervous system that can alleviate pain.

Dropping an occasional curse word can also demonstrate a level of comfort with another person.

“It’s something you’re not supposed to be doing, but you trust them,” Dr. Adams says. “It’s a sign of intimacy.”

He believes that people are seeking this type of connection as a result of  experiencing shifts in lifestyle after being isolated from colleagues.

“We’re using what we’ve got,” he says.

Tracy Brady is a communications executive in Boston. She’s found herself swearing more during the pandemic. She likens this relaxing of language to the casual way we dress now.

She says cursing “is the yoga pants and Uggs of language.”

She also says she relies more on cursing now  as a way to bond and laugh with other colleagues and parents during stressful times. During a virtual back-to-school night, she sat through a presentation on navigating student schedules virtually.

Befuddled, she texted two other parents: “ Does anyone else feel like a f---ing moron?”

Of course, not every feels that upping the ante on the cursing front is an acceptable idea.

Executive speech coach Diane DiResta cautions again using profanity at the office.

“It’s too risky” she says. She feels that what sounds acceptable to one person’s ears may be offensive to someone else.

Still, some branding experts say that swearing can convey a certain “grittiness” if it’s right for the brand.

Others feel that now they communicate faster and more effectively in their Microsoft Teams meetings and that swearing is simply a by-product of the more casual nature of things.

Perhaps, now that business can be conducted virtually anywhere, and colleagues are comfortable meeting from kitchens and dens, and dining room tables double as desks, and children and pets roam freely about in the background, the office filter has been taken down.

After two years of this, one is inclined to say, “F--- it.”