HYDE PARK — It's not your imagination: people are increasingly, and unashamedly, dropping the f-bomb these days.
According to the University of Chicago-affiliated NORC, a quarter of Americans use effin' at least once a day, according to its most recent survey. That's up 10 points from a similar question asked in 2006, NORC says.
Some 34 percent of admit using some kind of profanity in public at least sometimes, according to a nationwide survey conducted in March by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The survey of a little more than 1,000 was designed to gauge overall civility. Three quarters of those questioned believe society is generally more ill-mannered than it was 30 years ago.
Researchers say there are clear differences between what older Americans and younger Americans consider to be generally rude behavior.
"In areas of technology, particularly, almost half of Americans age 18 to 29 feel it is perfectly acceptable to use cell phones in restaurants, for example, while only 22 percent of those over age 60 agree. This same sort of division is apparent in the use of profanity and even in discussions of sex in public," Trevor Tompson, director of The AP-NORC Center, said in a statement.
Profanity may be good for people: Swears allow "us to vent or express anger, joy, surprise, happiness," says Timothy Jay of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who has studied profanity for more than 35 years.
"It's like the horn on your car: you can do a lot of things with that. It's built into you," Jay told Scientific American in a story headlined "Why the #$%! Do We Swear?"
Meanwhile, researcher Jack Grieve has analyzed tweets to create maps of the United States reflecting use of profanity. (When it comes to f-bombs Chicago, we're effin' golden, as one of our governors once said.)
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