UNITED STATES—What is it about gossip that so many of us engage in it on a daily basis? For most us we get our daily dose of gossip from those salacious tabloids that report so many false stories its hard to fathom that a vast majority of the country believe the information to be true. More importantly we engage in gossip at work, at school and at home, so why do we do it? In my personal opinion, it makes us feel a bit better about ourselves when we engage in gossip.
Perhaps talking about people makes the day go a bit faster or we feel better about ourselves when the attention isn’t all placed on us. At work people tend to engage in more gossip than any other place. I’m speaking from personal experience from just watching or overhearing other co-workers just gab all day about people. Really, do you not have anything else to do? Its amazing do see 40 and 50 year-olds dishing dirt on other people, but the kicker is they would hate for anyone else to know what’s happening in their personal life.
It’s a double standard; it’s okay for me to talk about you as I’m the big boss, but God forbid you learn some information about me and dish it to the rest of the workplace. Who cares? What are we in high school again? Do your job and stop focusing on stupid banter.
The reason this issue is so important is there has been an ongoing debate for years that women gossip much more than men, but guess what it’s an equal playing field. Guys gossip just as much as women do, it’s just not viewed as gossip to most people. No matter how you look at things if you’re talking about people, its gossip, plain and simple.
As adults we know gossip is bad in schools, as so many children focus on making other people’s lives miserable at the sake of getting a laugh. Children and adults fail to realize the impact that gossip has on people; it’s not healthy. People’s feeling get hurt, some become quite depressed and unfortunately it can lead to suicide attempts. This is not a joke, yet some people fail to realize the impact that their actions have on others. Some fail to realize the situation until the tables are turned and they become the butt of the joke.
How about we make a pact, a goal to go a day, a week, without gossiping about each other? There are so many other important things that we should have discussions about versus talking about what someone is wearing, how they look, what they’re doing or not doing and what other personal details that should not be a concern of ours. Gossip is toxic, it spreads like a plague. Once you tell one person they tell another person and another person, before you know it 100 people know a “secret” about someone that may in fact not be true at all.
Once a rumor is put out there its impossible to take it back. Think before you act, as there are always consequences for your actions.
By Trevor Roberts
