I was once being followed and harassed by a woman. I told her to “stay the fuck out of my life”.

Nothing came of it, but when I asked a lawyer about getting a restraining order against her, he told me that she actually had grounds to get an order against me, specifically because I had used the word “fuck” when I said that to her. That word, he said, could be considered evidence in a hearing that I was dangerous to her.

So basically, my primary reason to stop cursing is to avoid triggering special rules (not only legal, but corporate rules as well) that are activated by a person who says those key words.

If people know you as someone who doesn’t swear, when you do swear they will take note of what you’re saying.

I have made a conscious effort to reduce swearing, which has brought my swearing down to near zero, both online and in real life conversation.

I have found that it streamlines the ability to make a point. A lot of swearing is simply thrown in out of habit, and if you remove it, all you do is make your point more clear without losing anything of substance.

I think for many people swearing is a “filler word” in the same way that “umm” can be. I have also worked hard to reduce my other filler word use. My goal with both of these is better articulation.

The next effect is that swearing is normally viewed as an extreme use of language for an extreme situation, and when you don’t constantly swear the times that you do actually conveys how notable the situation is.

I save my profanity for times and things that are truly worth getting upset about. If you use it all the time, then it becomes meaningless. It just becomes background noise and you sound like a 10 year old all the time.

I feel like this belongs here.