I did some gossiping this weekend. And now I wonder if I should feel guilty. A 'Google' search on gossip provided some insight but it hasn't helped me in examining my moral compass. I'm not a mean-spirited person. I know this about myself. However, any fly on the wall this weekend may feel differently.There were moments when I simply "wanted to know" something about someone. I'm not sure why. Why do I care who is sleeping with who(or is it whom)? What's the point of knowing mindless, banal information? I don't know. I just know I wanted to know it.
In other circumstances I was "gossiping" (if that's what you want to call it) to make sense of the world around me. A little over 5 years ago I was at the center of some relentless and juicy gossip within my circle of friends. I didn't know I was being talked about and when I found out...I was livid. I lashed out and said some hurtful (if not somewhat truthful) things to a few people. A friend sympathized with me but made no apologies for "talking" with others. She wrote in an email, "We share our feelings, our emotions, and our lives with one another because that is how we cope, that is how we understand and come to terms with events and issues that we have a hard time interpreting on our own. It's about support and love and trust." I was still angry...but her words have resonated with me ever since. But is she justifying gossip?
This post has a serious tone that I didn't intend to convey. My weekend was fun-filled and not at all dramatic. I was just wondering what everyone else thought of "gossip." Is it bad? Good? Neither? What does the word even mean?
5 comments:
i'm not one to judge as i've been known to partake in useless gossip. i'm from a tiny town, i was raised on it. i feel i must remind you, it can be entertaining.
slcup will agree with me on this one: beer pong.
I've read that gossip has evolutionary roots. It evolved as a skill when cavepeople used it to know where the good hunting was or who was a backstabber or not (literally or figuratively). I use that fact to justify my gossipping. But, as for its necessity today, we probably can't fall back on that fact. I don't consider all gossip bad--sometimes I just like to know what makes people tick, and will talk about them to try to figure them out.
I think you should share the gossip. Haha.
Anon: You're such a bad influence.
i've actually been thinking a lot lately about what constitutes gossiping. like most things, i think it comes down to intent. in my oppinion, what makes gossip "gossip" is when there's an air of malice to it, when your intentions are to make your listener think less of someone.
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