From Screens to Speech: Guidance Counselors' Perceptions on How Social Media Deinfluencing Normalizes Cussing Among Grades 3–6 Learners

This study looks at how guidance counselors see social media deinfluencing as a factor in the normalization of swearing among students in Grades 3–6. Children are becoming exposed to influencer content that frequently uses vulgarity, humor, and expressive delivery in digitally mediated spaces. Deinfluencing may unintentionally reinforce profanity because of its performative and emotionally charged nature, even when its goal is to discourage behaviors. This study, which is based on Chomsky's Generative/Innatist Theory, presents cursing not as deliberate wrongdoing but as a linguistically acquired habit shaped by patterned exposure. Semi-structured interviews with guidance counselors and teacher-designates in the Milagros West District of Masbate Province were used to gather data using a qualitative descriptive design, which was then subjected to thematic analysis. Results show that learners are mimicking not just language but also tone and expressive styles from social media, making swearing spontaneous, socially rooted, and linguistically internalized. Profanity was found to be paradoxically strengthened by deinfluencing content through emotional salience and repetition. Cussing is a socially reinforced and digitally mediated linguistic phenomenon, according to the study's conclusion, underscoring the necessity of media-informed and language-sensitive interventions in educational contexts.