Chit Chat. Babble. News. Conversation. I heard it through the grapevine. They have so much dirty laundry. We aren’t meddling, it’s just the story.
How many ways can you think of how we as humans refer to gossip? How frequently are these conversations shared between people that occur, because they heard something from someone else? Can you think of a time that you have never been the topic of gossip, talked about gossip, or overheard someone else talk about gossip?
Here’s the deal, gossip seems to be the inevitable form of conversation. If I had to guess, this form of news and conversation has been going on for many decades prior to today. We still seem to not be able to live without it. Everyone has done it, everyone has heard it, and everyone has been a part of the gossip in one way or another. Gossip does not have preferences. It effects every race, ethnicity, age, social class, media platform, you name it, gossip effects it one way or another.
Social media has become a large advocate for how we share gossip. ENews, MTV, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, US Magazine, OK! Magazine and many more are all outlets to see what's going on in the world. These outlets are also places that we would more commonly find mainstream gossip.
When I’m talking about mainstream gossip, I am referring to the ways in which the popular people of the world — celebrities, politicians, world leaders you name it —are the ones that are having their privacy and stories invaded. Whether in good or bad terms, gossip is gossip for these people. It is a way of living for some people. Gossip has become our news center and a way to pay our bills.
OK, so maybe that is a bit of a stretch for everyone, but it has some relevance to it. Let’s bring it down a notch…
Everyday life. A couple of students are rumored to have been caught cheating on an exam because they got the test questions from another student. A couple who has been together for months just broke up, rumor has it someone cheated on someone. At the party last weekend, this guy was so drunk, you will never guess what he did!
The list goes on and on. You would think that the realm of gossip would be more prevalent in the high school setting, but unfortunately, it can be found in the university setting too. Gossip never ceases. Whether it is a big campus or a little campus, it will still be heard. One thing that changes based on the size of the campus, however, could be the speed at which the gossip travels. With traveling gossip and the help of social media, gossip will forever be a problem. But what next?
The biggest problem with gossip is that human nature seems to thrive off it. It is like when you were younger and played the game telephone. One person would hear the true story and then along the lines it would get twisted and turned into something that it was not. By the time you heard what it really was everyone would be laughing at how silly it was. Unlike the game, people have the ability to place their opinions and biases into the story. We also have a tendency to only hear one side of every story. Is it still something to laugh at when the story has been twisted so bad or told from one side that the person’s dirty laundry is out for everyone to see.
The idea of privacy is limited. The disruption of someone’s life is a large possibility. Can there be a positive to gossip?To be honest, I’m not really sure. There are so many influences that keep the fire going with gossip, who knows what good can come from it. It is the inevitable conversation and the habit of human nature. All I can say is… be careful if it is your dirty laundry that is being aired next.
