Do our words matter?

I found this interesting article and I'm interested to get your take on it. Click here to read the article, then you can read my comments below.

Being a youth pastor, I know students have learned to censor their language when their around me. Also I spend a lot of my time working with Christian students at church, which isn't an atmosphere conducive to swearing (although Tiffanney would tell you she learned to swear in a church youth group). I have noticed a lot more hateful language coming from our teens. Even words said in jest are powerful, and we have to be careful with the words we choose. One girl in our group constantly is saying "I hate you." And I know she means for it to be funny, but the bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and words like those can be easily misunderstood. You have to be cautious when you throw around words like that, because the words you speak go on forever. Words can be powerful weapons, we need to treat them as such.