From a purely prose-centric perspective, swear words are just one of the spices in our cabinets that we use to cook up our sentences. Some people are very sensitive, some are not, some love it. The overwhelming majority will tolerate a fair amount. It can serve a lot of great purposes: it sets tone (casual, irreverent, rebellious), it’s an intensifier, it can get the reader’s attention. The only thing you should worry about is whether it is working for the style you want to achieve and the mood you want to convey.

To put my Essay Camp hat on (eh hem), consider the opening to the essay The Terror of Love by Samantha Irby:

“I am missing the first bicuspid on the upper right side of my mouth. Eight years ago I got a root canal. It was routine, I guess? How the shit can you know unless you have a skull X-ray machine in your living room? Anyway, I hadn't seen a dentist in fucking forever because dental care is super expensive and while teeth are easily the thing a person is most afraid to fucking lose, ain't nobody got hundreds of dollars just lying around for annual X-rays and cleanings. Besides, I was twenty-five; was I really expected to worry about my goddamned teeth?! I AM YOUNG AND I AM GOING TO LIVE FOREVER BECAUSE HOT POCKETS ARE TOTALLY NUTRITIOUS.”

The swearing is so important to the mood, style, and tone of the piece. It immediately brings the reader into a casual conversant mode with the essayist and does a lot to establish the character of the speaker. People who feel like these words are “wrong” and should never be used are, in my opinion, usually out of touch with the scope of language and the reality of modern life. That said, they are welcome not to read things that contain a lot of swearing.