Gossip In The Modern Age

In an age of Facebook and a dizzying host of other similar websites, gossip is a bigger problem than ever. It's a problem because people can use all these electronic channels to hurt other, targeted individuals. Whether it's high school kids or adults in the work place, people can seek to hurt others socially, and in the modern age they can do it from the safety and security of their bedroom.

How To Move Forward
Concentrating solely on how much anyone dislikes gossip won't really serve to help anyone. People need hope to move forward. They need to have the hope they can get past this, that they can survive and thrive in a world where people like to put each other down.

At the end of the day gossip is really just bullying. Bullying in my experience can work for people if they get an emotional rush from the pain their victims feel. If their victim feels no pain, they get no rush, and at the end of the day they feel nothing.

Using this model on a small scale seems to work (again, in my experience), but it tends to fall apart when working on a larger scale, when an entire group of people are talking about you (like in office drama or similar scenarios). The weapon of gossip is fear, fear that one won't be liked, won't be talked too, won't be hired or might just be fired. There are social consequences from being disliked and that's what gossipers hold over the heads of their targets.

It's important to have a backup plan in life. Real confidence from fear comes from knowing you'll be okay. People who don't worry about their future are people who can put up the fear of office drama.

Another thing people need to learn is how good it is to live life apart from opinions. People should live a balanced life, there are some social norms we should conform to out of courtesy to others. But when we start modifying our morals based on social acceptance there's trouble afoot.

People who live like that live in a cage. They can't step out of line because all those people they gossip with, well, they're just as willing to talk about them as well. It's a common theme online, that gossip is a double-edged sword.

I think that's the real secret to breaking free of gossip, based on what I've been through. Once you learn to see gossipers for what they are, lonely cowards who only speak ill when they feel they can get away with it, and not as a unified front, you begin to feel the strength to go against the grain and live your life.

I really hope to explore these ideas I've presented here on this site, and to help people with the problem. Even if only by teaching you how to get past it. People shouldn't have to live life suffering from other people's childishness. Nor should they feel alone.