Something that’s been on my mind recently is the issue of swearing on twitter. This hasn’t been prompted by anything in particular, and it’s purely relating to my own tweets. I’m not criticising anyone else for swearing (or not!), just trying to work out where I stand on it.
Now, I swear. A lot. And I don’t have a problem with other people swearing. I’m not going to go into why I think swearing has a place in the language – others have done that far more eloquently than I could hope to – but whether it has a place on my twitter stream.
The thing is, I’ve always lived by the rule that you don’t swear in professional situations, or in front of clients. Spilled a cup of tea over a huge stack of newspapers? Oh sugar. Getting torrents of abuse from punters? Smile, grit your teeth, and call them sir. I’d never swear while working a reference desk, or at an interview. I wouldn’t swear on a conference stand, or in a work-related blog post (in general, yeah? Appreciate that this post might be a little hard to write otherwise! So, if you haven’t already guessed, there will be swearing in this post. Look away now if you’re of a nervous disposition.)
But what about twitter? Is it a professional milieu? Sure, I have a lot of professional contacts on twitter, but we don’t just talk about work all the time. Sure, my twitter contacts may one day be interviewing me for a job, or reviewing my papers, but will it really matter then that I once called someone a wanker on twitter? Will they remember? Will they care?
It really does come down to where I feel my twitter circle fits in the professional/personal scale. Many of my tweets are personal, or not directly professionally relevant; but I know that when I do have something of professional interest to say, then I have an audience who will be interested and engaged. So how do I deal with this mix?
I’ve come to the conclusion that, for me, twitter is like after-conference drinks in the pub. For an even more concrete example, twitter is like drinks in the Head of Steam after Mash oop North (possibly because I met a lot of tweeps for the first time there). It’s a friendly, collegial atmosphere, where you know that you can appreciate each other’s professional interests, but are also more relaxed, talking about telly and books and music and making jokes. It’s an atmosphere where a bit of judicious swearing is perfectly in order.
And so, I have decided, for my twitter. Don’t worry that my stream is going to become NSFW, with random expletives jammed into every post. This is, after all, judicious swearing – and I do have to remember that other people’s twitter milieus might not be the same as mine. They may feel that it is a professional only area, and that swearing is inappropriate. But what sort of swearing? I doubt anyone would be offended by the occasional ‘sod it’ or ‘bloody’. ‘Bugger’ is probably ok, and I think I could get away with ‘shit’. ‘Bollocks’ is probably moving closer to the wire. And as for the f and c words? Well, as you can see, I’ve wimped out of using them here, in a post about swearing, where I’ve warned people there will be swearing. So probably not, no. (why am I so worried about it? It’s not like no-one’s ever said ‘fuck’ on the internet. oh, there we go!)
I realise that this might seem like a trivial post – or an excuse to chuck swearwords around on my blog – but it has actually made me think quite carefully about what being a professional entails. I’d always had this vague sense that being professional meant being on your best behaviour at all times – until you’d locked the door and taken your shoes off, and then you could do what the hell you liked. Problem is, a lot of our professional interaction now is taking place behind that locked door, and I can tell you for a fact I’m not wearing any shoes right now.
I can also tell you that the professionals I respect most are those who let their human side show. Those people who are efficient, informative, and amusing. Who can get the job done and still have time for a natter. Who are confident enough in themselves to find the balance between formality and informality. People who are ‘always on’ I find intimidating. Little touches of the personal help people to relate to you, feel more comfortable with you, and (I believe) make for better working relationships.
So, that interviewer who remembers me swearing on twitter. Will it hinder my chances? Could it even help? Or would it simply be of no importance? We are adults, communicating with each other by the tools commonly used in society, and swearing is one of those tools. So why am I agonising about it? I think it’s about time I bloody well shut up 😉
15 comments
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January 5, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Owen
i like to think of them as “sentence enhancers” for special use when talking about banks, minor things that have gone wrong and times when bodyparts have bumped into furniture or when drunk 🙂
January 5, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Edith S
I found this post extremely interesting, as I currently avoid swearing on Twitter for exactly the reasons you’ve stated, even though I do quite a lot of personal tweets (plus some political ones which often make me feel like swearing!). I let one swearword slip through in anger the other week and felt so bad about it I posted an apology; your post has made me realise I’m being a little uptight about it all 🙂
January 5, 2010 at 4:02 pm
bethan
it’s something I’ve been dithering about for a while, and have been pretty uptight about myself! I’ll look out for your angry political tweets 😉
January 5, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Tweets that mention Swearing on Twitter « Bethan's information professional blog -- Topsy.com
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lukas Koster, Bethan Ruddock. Bethan Ruddock said: Blogged: swearing on twitter http://bit.ly/5BU8Xs (contains, umm, swearing. and some quite unoriginal thoughts about professionalism) […]
January 5, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Owen Stephens (a different Owen)
This is something I’ve thought about quite a bit as well. What you’ve said sums up how I feel generally – I try not to swear in ‘professional’ situations, but I would feel free in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere of after conference (or work) drinks etc.
Early on I seemed to make an unconscious decision not to swear on Twitter. I guess I was unsure of how formal/professional I should be and erred on the side of caution. Later I considered this deliberately as you have here, and decided (in contrast) that I’d stick to the ‘no swearing’ policy.
I’m not sure I can justify this – it’s part of my real life persona that I suppress online (not that I swear a huge amount in real life). I have been known to start typing a tweet, then delete bad language from it – so clearly the occasional obscenity is sometimes my instinctive reaction. However I guess in the end I’m aware that I have an unknown and diverse audience online – and I can’t judge it the way I could in a face-to-face situation.
I don’t think this is necessarily trivial, I think, as you suggest, it is part of a wider question of how we present ourselves and how tools like twitter are leading to a convergence of the professional and personal. The language we use (clean or otherwise) is clearly an important part of how we present ourselves.
January 5, 2010 at 4:31 pm
bethan
I think you’ve justified not swearing perfectly well! It’s a very good point about the ‘unknown and diverse audience’, and I’m aware that, by swearing, I do run the risk of offending someone, and possibly damaging my professional image.
However, the same could be said for any viewpoints I care to express – there will always be someone who disagrees, and who might turn that disagreement into dislike. I don’t think that’s particularly likely, but it’s one of the reasons that I shied away from saying anything at all on the internet for a long time!
This post was really about me coming to terms with (or trying to convince myself!) that a bit of swearing won’t ruin my professional image. I do always try to choose my language very carefully, and that will continue. After all this, you might never see me swear again! But I think just having this conversation has been valuable for me.
It all comes down to a personal choice; to what you are comfortable with. I’m certainly not going to call anyone who doesn’t swear a prude, or consider that I’ve made a better professional choice! In fact, I might repent of this article very soon. Sometime around, say, my next job interview?
You know, if I’d just started swearing on twitter I doubt anyone would have noticed…
January 5, 2010 at 6:02 pm
thefrickingwikiman
Depends on who’s following you a bit though, doesn’t it? Ultimately all good decisions around communication are taken based on who you are communicating with – you only match your style to the situation as best you can.
I’ve made a decision not to follow friends on Twitter, purely to follow work-related people (who I may of course be friends with! But you know what I mean) and so that’s reflected in who follows me – I’ve probably not had reason to enhance a tweet with swearing in my short time on Twitter, but the professional-use-only thing would probably stop me doing so (unless it was an @someone tweet, maybe). That said, I don’t object to other people swearing – woodsiegirl said something was shit the other day, and I was thrilled.
p.s I think shit is much worse than bollocks – I’d say bollocks at work, but I’d try and avoid shit.
p.p.s Good times!
January 5, 2010 at 9:31 pm
bethan
oh, I entirely agree! I’m not about to start filling my twitter stream with a string of expletives, but I’m fairly comfortable that if I do swear, it’s not going to signify professional death or ostracism. It’s taken me nearly a year of being on twitter to get to this state of engagement with my twitter community – this isn’t a sudden decision!
Having a professional network on twitter does mean that I am more careful about what I say. If I wasn’t self-censoring, I’d probably be a lot more responsive to @thebloggess, for example. Or get involved with some of the more outré memes that go round. And I’m fine with that not being part of my twitter personality. If I really feel like I’m missing out, I can always make an entirely non-professional twitter account, and go wild 🙂
But I’m really pleased that I’ve pinpointed where twitter is as a professional place for me. And that everyone didn’t suddenly unfollow me after reading this post!
January 6, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Scott
Interesting post. I too swear a lot – perhaps too much – in the real world, and have been known to do so at work on occassion too (usually at my PC … it’s a hardy beast and it can take the abuse). This made me think about whether or not I do swear or not on twitter. I do, but not often and as I tend not to go around tweeting that peeps are cunts and wankers etc, I’m not too bothered about my own usage on the service. But, it is certainly something to consider when managing your online brand (really hate to use the term, but if we volunteer to put information up online about ourselves we have to make the effort to control/manage that information the best way we can).
Also – as you say – it may also come dowm to whether your twitter account is personal/professional or both. Mine is the latter as couln’t be bothered having two accounts that would cross over.
January 25, 2010 at 6:56 pm
bethan
That’s a good point about our online brands – whether you want one or not, as soon as you stick your head over that internet parapet you’ve got one, and then have to look after it. For instance, taking nearly 3 weeks to reply to comments on your blog = very bad online brand management 😦 and just plain rude. Sorry!
My twitter account is also a mixture of personal and professional, and I like that mix, both in my accounts and in other people’s. It might mean that we have to be a little more professional in our personal tweeting, but it also means getting to talk about cool things with a load of interesting people, so it balances out!
(oh, I swear at work as well. the rest of the office tend to find it very amusing. especially when I become slightly incoherent with rage.)
January 7, 2010 at 2:27 pm
woodsiegirl
Really nice post. Made me think of this for some reason: http://xkcd.com/137/
Your approach sounds like a good balance. I probably take much the same approach, but have never really tried to explain it in a coherent way… I also swear a lot in real life, but do I think swearing online is different somehow (you can think about and review your word usage when you’re writing something down, whereas it’s much easier to let a bad swear slip out when talking). I don’t think I swear much on Twitter, but it’s never really been a conscious decision not to offend anyone, I just don’t often find it necessary! Just scanned over my twitter profile page and I can see three swears in the last month (one “shit”, one “bloody” and one “sod it”, if you’re curious!). I doubt that many people would be offended by that kind of language in those contexts. I really like your comparison of Twitter with the drinks in the pub after a conference, by the way – that’s exactly how I think of it (only not in those words because that comparison hadn’t really occurred to me before you wrote it!)
January 25, 2010 at 7:00 pm
bethan
heehee I *love* that xkcd. Sometimes I really do wish I had the balls to do that. And then I remember that one of the reasons I love my profession is because it’s filled with intelligent, commited people who will challenge expectations, and who value the power of dreams.
Ok, you can come back now. sentimental rant over 🙂
January 7, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Joy Palmer
I’m late as always, Beth. Just a short comment, really, and that to me this is exactly why mediums like twitter are so fascinating — they highlight this blur ring of personal & professional, public & private that’s happening in our culture right now. A general rule for me (that I don’t always abide by) is ‘would I be OK with this being Retweeted tomorrow morning’ or somesuch.
My rules are similar to yours, but maybe a bit more reserved in hte swearing department for obvious reasons (and you *know* I can cuss for england IRL ;-))
But even ‘authenticity’ needs to be carefully constructed and considered in these environments:)
September 18, 2010 at 11:31 am
Goodness
Swearing of any kind is toxic to everyone who is in contact with the one who spread toxins whether they can feel it or not. Twitter or other site owners should filter out swearing words in any shape or form and even blocked those site should they receive any complaint about it. Another option is to give those who like to swear and do not mind swearing to be under their own swearing world of twitters and blogs so that they have a way to vent their own anger and frustration or even engage in habit that they like since they are incapable of finding better ways to reduce stress in a positive way. Swearing will become illegal someday or you will be fined for swearing.
September 18, 2010 at 11:41 am
Thewikiman
On the contrary, I think it’ll get more and more common place. Society tends to get more permissive over time (although perhaps that goes in cycles).
I think swearing, used well, is an important, useful and often entertaining part of the way we use language to communicate.
Woof!