Illustrated by Ly Ngo. Case in point: A group of four researchers compiled data from 51 million English-language tweets from 14 million user accounts over a one-month period. On average, one out of 13 tweets contains at least one curse word, with the F-word taking first place, and shit taking a close second. So, are we really all a bunch of drunken sailors? Not exactly. “Because of social media, people don’t see each other. They can say things they wouldn’t say in the physical world,” said Wenbo Wang (a PhD researcher at Wright State University who led the study) to Fast Company. Furthermore, while profanity is not the most eloquent way of expressing your feelings, not all uses are negative — like playfully calling your friend a dirty B for example. So, until a filter can be developed, try to tweet with class, dear reader.
(Fast Company)