... to find swearing utterly boring?

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

I'm on a train to work surrounded by six schoolboys about 15. Talking about football and swearing constantly when swearwords aren't needed.

They're all using the F word and even starting sentences with it: "Fucking ... " and then just a normal ordinary sentence. Swearing not required.

It's totally pointless and boring to swear when swearwords aren't needed. If I use swearwords it's in context - extreme anger, shock etc. Otherwise it loses its currency.

And why is the F word the only one people think of? I've heard people say it's a symptom of a lack of vocabulary and always disagreed because of swearing stuffed into a sentence at random. But I'm now inclined to agree as nobody seems to know any other swearwords!

Swearing for effect is an art. David Mitchell is brilliant at it just because he’s normally so polite and lovely. But I agree the constant use of fucking as an adjective can get a bit wearing at times.

How would you suggest I did that when on a seat for two, facing another seat for two, opposite two more of the same across the aisle and one kid behind and nowhere else to move to?

Snoopinator

You do realise that you can scroll on past threads or posts that don't interest you for any reason, don't you? You don't need a note from your mum to excuse you, nobody will mind (or even know).

I'm off to The Litter Tray now to clearly tell everybody there how very uninteresting and irrelevant all of their posts are to me, because I don't have a cat.

Swearing’s fine if used electively. Research suggests that it can have stress relief qualities, which is probably why it’s endured in human vocabulary.

It's just a form of showing off and trying to act grown up and tough for teenagers. They'll get over it.

Personally it's grown adults swearing in more formal situations that makes me roll me eyes. Like at work for example (if work is an office or something).

This is not the right forum for this thread - people take pride in being foul mouthed on Mumsnet.

The most tiresome of all are those who don't even know what they want to say (if anything), so will just start with a random swear word before a long pause as they then think about it. I'm not talking about responding to something significant that takes you aback, but just ordinary mundane chat. Nobody can convince me that that is not a sign of seriously stunted vocabulary.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll That's exactly what one of them was doing. Starting off with "Fucking ....." whilst he then constructed the rest of the sentence.

It's just a form of showing off and trying to act grown up and tough for teenagers. They'll get over it.

Most of them do; some of them grow up and join MN.

Seriously, what is the point of having very strong words available for occasional use when you want to make a particularly hard-hitting point or to express intense emotion and then just pepper your everyday chit-chat with them?

It's like the linguistic equivalent of taking antibiotics every time you have a snuffle or a tickly cough and then wondering why they don't work any longer when you get a serious infection.

I've only once been in a situation where I felt someone was swearing excessively. It was on a bus, an 18/19yo dad trying to impress a female passenger by dropping "fuck" in multiple times in a sentence. (Along the lines of "My fucking kid was fucking born in fucking February, we fucking called a fucking ambulance to fucking take my fucking ex to the fucking hospital and it fucking took so fucking long she fucking had to fucking take a fucking taxi and it fucking cost a fucking fuck load, the fucking driver didn't fucking care it was a fucking emergency and fucking made her fucking pay.") I actually get what the OP might mean - it wasn't that it was offensive, just a bit pathetic.

I bet it worked, though: how could she fail to be thoroughly impressed by this modern-day Shakespeare?!

Oh gosh well you could buy some noise canceling headphones, listen to music, play a game on your phone, read a book, day dream...find a way to distract yourself because then instead of listening you'll just hear background noise.
Or of course you can move and stand elsewhere?

I manage every day on a tightly packed bus to not listen to conversations around me.

There’s a difference between “listening in” and “having no choice but to hear”.

The OP is complaining about the latter.

I'd be more bothered about a bunch of (likely) virgins talking about shagging sheep.

Fuck! Don't work in a school then!

They’re 15. It’s what they do.
I get bored of hearing it at work, it’s tedious. They’ll grow out of it.

I hate it too op. I actually used to be quite a swearer (I know, not a word!) but then I started working in a shop where nobody ever ever curses and now I hate it, especially in a setting like that where kids listening will think it’s fine to just throw the f word around.

I'm wearing the wrong glasses and misread the title - I was thinking hmm I suppose sweating is a bit boring 😁

Swearing is like most things - use in moderation. But it's neccessary and fabulous used the right context. I would absolutely hate a society where I couldn't swear.

Fucking hell, I think swearing's a great way to communicate emotional.

And they did lol

I walked into work behind two young men (20ish) : "I did fucking chest yesterday and it's fucking arms today fucking innit" 🤣

I work in a university and I never hear it.

I wasn't even on their radar. I was sitting fiddling with my phone on mumsnet, they paid me and everyone else zero attention. They were just being who they are. It's so mainstream now they don't realise.

Why just the F word though? Overused and unoriginal. Other swear words are available! Nobody inserts pissing, chuffing, bloody or frigging into every sentence?

I didn't comment this morning when I saw this post as I thought it was a typical prude post, but I noticed on the tube tonight a bunch of private school girls dropping f bombs all through general conversation (obviously tuned in by this thread), and thought of this post. Could be a possible changing of normal conversation/language evolving scenario.

I don't know, I know I sweared (sp) like a trouper when I was younger out and about but never in front of my parents, maybe it is a coming of age situation, not for the children we see swearing but realising we are know sounding like our parents about obscene lyrics in songs etc.

I fucking hate swearing too.