What Could Gossip Do?

One of the most common things everyone does is gossip because it’s entertaining, but some people don’t know the effects of gossip.

Gossip mostly starts by hearing something in a friend group or following certain sites. For example, most kids at Fitz gossip about the pictures that are posted of students on the Fitz Instagram account. It mostly starts with students finding embarrassing pictures of classmates at school. Those photos are then sent to spam accounts where they are shared with more people. And when people share those photos, the students get embarrassed and bullied.

Gossip can hurt someone's feelings and it can eventually lead to ruining their reputation. Furthermore, gossiping can cause bullying, feelings of betrayal, and depression, but people find it interesting; it’s something to talk about, and the more people talk about it, the more it spreads the more it gets worse. Gossiping spreads so much that it even reaches teachers. Mr. Couch said, "Gossiping can ruin someone's life, career, and reputation enough for people to believe it.” Mr. Couch believes gossiping isn't a good thing.

Gossiping can be stopped. Mrs. Menzies gave us an example of how to stop it: “The best way to stop gossiping is [to stop] following certain people or sites. Don't follow them.” For example, students can choose to not follow certain sites or accounts, or they can stop talking about it. This may seem small but it helps the person that people are talking about. After all, students may gain popularity from gossiping, so they still do it, but the other person gains hate–is it worth it?

Sometimes gossiping doesn’t affect people. For example, Leslie Vazquez said, “If I heard a rumor about me, I wouldn’t care. I would ignore it.” But it’s hard, not everyone can act like Vazquez. 

The truth is that gossiping can be entertaining in many ways. For example, Natalie Mora said, "It's entertaining and having something to talk about." Mora gave us an example of how it is entertaining. She believes it's something interesting if you're bored. Mrs. Trujillo believes it’s in our DNA to gossip. “It is human nature to gossip. We like to compare ourselves to others and we want to hear other people’s drama.” Yes, gossiping is entertaining in many ways, but it affects other people, and sometimes people change the story so much that what people tell each other is far from what actually happened.

But is gossip considered bullying? Many people ask this.“I don’t consider gossiping bullying because [bullying] is to hurt someone and gossiping is saying words behind someone’s back… [they are]not meant for someone to know about,” said Vazquez. But people find ways to hear what people say behind someone’s back. Gossiping is bad in many ways. For example, gossiping can make people insecure and get mean comments from other people. Even the Bible says gossiping is bad by saying it's a sin. And saying horrible things and making a person feel worse about themselves, even suicidal thoughts. But yet gossiping is an impossible thing to stop since everyone is gossiping and it's human nature to gossip, but would you like it if someone talks behind your back?