Can any late teen-early 20s armchair philosophers once-over this for me?
I have a theory. Never before on the internet (going on 30 years of it) have I seen so many curses used but not fully spelled out ('f*ck' for example).
I believe the change has to do with social media and specifically short-form video apps (Tiktok, IG Reels, Youtube Shorts) - not all of which I am familiar with, but I know at least YT and I believe TT does as well. When curse words or words like rape and murder are used in text (or 'subtitle' text on screen) the video reach can be penalized in some way. I assume it's similar in comments.
So you have a ton of the younger generation consuming hours each day of censored curse words, and in their mind it becomes just what you're supposed to do, socially. They end up doing it with each other over text, and consequently in comments. I have a younger co-worker who will gladly say "F*ck that dude hes a b*tch" in group chat, and when I asked him why he doesn't just say the words he's using, he said "I just don't like to curse." Which makes no sense to me, as it's the same word and intent.
I know some Lemmy instances will remove words, but generally only 'bitch' and derogatory slur words.
So I hypothesise it's simply unexamined social conditioning, where they see their peers doing it so they do it too, never questioning why.