People between the ages of 18 and 34 don't read newspapers with the same frequency as previous generations. I wrote about this very fact in a previous blog entry. The majority of daily newspaper readers are over the age of 50 and do so out of habit. How can newspapers get the 18 - 34 demographic to return? Eric Celeste who writes for the Dallas Observer has the answer. You must be willing to print the word "f*ck."
Celeste argues that young people want the world as they see it: without filters. To present our world in this fashion requires the use of the word "f*ck" because it's a word used by young people when discussing party politics, religion, love, war and peace. If newspapers want to be part of this world, they have to print it.
This got me to thinking about those few words society still sees as profane. I make a conscious effort to avoid these words on this site. When I do refer to them (as I do in this entry), I use an asterisk in place of a letter as if that somehow sanitizes it. I'm not sure why I do this. When my brain sends the content to my fingers so they can stroke the necessary keys on my keyboard, there are usually curse words sprinkled here and there. At some point I filter these out and try to write as if young children and easily offended elderly people are viewing torontomike.com. Should I remove the filter and write raw? I often think I should, then I envision myself blocking my own site from James when he starts using the computer in a few years. That's when I refer to all the crap on television instead of all the horse sh*t.
I have successfully eliminated my use of curse words around James as well. Doing so was easier than I thought it would be. I'll share my patented method with you in case you want to try it yourself. I simply overwrote the swear in my psyche so when I'm apt to swear I still do, it's simply a form that society is far more comfortable with. Instead of saying that nastiest of nasty words "motherf*cker", I now say "mofo". "Sh*t" used to be a favourite word of mine, now it's the Irish translation "shite". If I feel a "f*ck" coming on, it comes out "fudge". Once I replaced one with the other, making the transition was a fudging snap.
