Taboo Words in Social Media: An Analysis of Their Use and Normalization

Abstract

This study looked at how Filipino social media users use taboo language in online conversations. It focused on the communicative purposes, contextual meanings, and sociocultural mechanisms that make these words and phrases normal on sites like Facebook and TikTok. Employing a qualitative descriptive research design alongside document analysis, the study scrutinized a corpus of publicly accessible posts and comments featuring 15 frequently utilized Filipino taboo expressions, gathered via purposive sampling, and evaluated them through qualitative content and thematic analysis. The results showed that taboo words do more than just offend people; they can also be used for humor, criticism, emotional expression, and symbolic social commentary in digital interactions. The analysis revealed four primary functional categories: direct insults and negative evaluations directed at individuals; metaphorical terms like buwaya and demonyo employed to condemn perceived immoral conduct; mild curses utilized to articulate annoyance or emotional distress; and vehemently offensive expressions employed to express anger or frustration in online discourse.