Would you ******* stop swearing?!

I put this up on my Facebook page this week.
* See note!

I wasn't surprised by the reaction. A couple of older friends were shocked. Younger friends thought it was funny. Swearing divides us at the moment along generation lines.

I grew up in a household where my father swore all the time, not for emphasis or as an outlet for anger but just as a natural part of everyday conversation. My mother could also let rip but only when annoyed. He was a shipyard worker and she worked in a factory. In both places, swearing was part of working life. Both of them toned it down when there were older or very young people around.

And I suppose that's the difference between their day and now. It seems now everybody swears, all the time and everywhere. In addition, swearing in Glasgow is an equal opportunities activity.

On the Glasgow Subway, I heard two girls in their late teens talking. They weren't neds and they weren't shouting, just chatting and reporting a conversation:
- So I says: Who you ******* talkin tae, ya ****? An he says: Who you cawin a ****?
And so it went on. To begin with, the repetition was quite funny but in the end the same two swear words were repeated so often, it was just boring.

It's not always boring, of course. Sometimes swearing feels quite violent. A friend caught in a dispute with a guy in Dundee over a parking space thought so as he called her 'a stupid ****' over and over. Not shouting it. Just quietly menacing.

I try to ignore it. The only time I've rebelled was on the Oban train when two young guys (going home for the weekend maybe?) walked past lots of empty seats to sit right in front of me and started a chat about a lecturer they didn't like. The effing and ceeing was still going on at Ardlui and when I realised they were probably going all the way Oban, I intervened and asked if they would please go and sit somewhere else because their swearing was getting on my nerves. They were quite surprised. I don't think they knew they were swearing or that anyone else could hear them or might be annoyed.

I wouldn't want to pretend that I never swear. But it tends to be in reaction to something. Today in my car I was being followed by a large SUV so close to my back bumper that I ended saying: You, pal, are going to end up sitting on my ******* knee! He turned off then, I'm glad to say.

But is swearing going the same way as lying and stealing in this country, both of which now seem almost acceptable? In another generation from now, will we find swear words have lost all meaning. What will we do then when we get angry? Draw a gun?

* If you know me, you'll realised till I had the helicobacter treatment I endured 15 years of irritable bowel syndrome - that's why I like the cartoon!