What is the Deal with Profanity?

As I finished the school year with my seniors, I asked a couple of questions I wanted them to think about. First, who are you right now? Second, who do you want to be? Not your job, not your position, but who you are as a person. Then I asked them about the way they talk, and I want to open the question up. Why is profanity so prevalent in our society?

If someone were talking to you and used the f-word over and over. They constantly swore in their conversation, what are your thoughts about that person? Do you think, "Wow, they are really educated"? Do you think "they are so well spoken"? Do you have more respect for someone who uses lots of profanity? Do you think they are a good person if they use the f-word over and over?

The reason we call those words "vulgar" is that the vulgar aspects of the language are the aspects used by the poor, uneducated, common folks. It's low class, it is trashy. When you hear people using a lot of profanity, are they associated more with high society or trailer park trash? Be honest with yourself, how do you think about people who swear often?

My students agreed that profanity makes us think less of a person. We think rude, disrespectful, uneducated, and unrefined. We don't think highly of people who swear a lot, so why do so many people use it? Does it make you better to swear? Does it make you a more well-spoken individual? Does it make others respect you? Do you seem tough, strong, mature, or wise? What advantage is had by using profanity?

The bigger question is, why do so many people use it so often? What is the purpose of using profanity? Why do we start using it, why do we continue to use it, and why is it so prevalent in our society? Does it demonstrate our collective ignorance or anger, or just a lack of imagination in our vocabulary? Does it simply show how Americans (and Western society) are unoriginal and just do what everyone else does? Do we just do it because we feel like being "cool", that is how we are supposed to talk?

Do you use profanity? If so, why?