GOSSIP

Number 28 on the states “When you are talked about behind you back, it is mostly bad.” To agree is to say all gossip is bad, and to disagree is to say that all gossip is good. It’s a tricky thing to pick a side on. I think that the thing we must base our decision on is how we, as individuals perceive gossip, and what the gossip exactly is. To some of us, it could be good, and to others.

Gossip is different for everybody. Even though some of us say, “Oh, I hate it when people gossip about me”, there are some of us that secretly relish in it. Therefore, we might not necessarily think of gossip to be such a bad thing. When you think about it, gossip means that you’ve captured the attention of others, in some form or another. When you think about it, many people whose attention is turned on you, to some extent that is an attractive thing. Why not have all heads turned to you for something that you have done. Unless the act incredibly embarrassing, we might be subconsciously proud of our actions. Therefore, we wouldn’t look at gossip being a bad thing. We would actually look at the attention as something that benefits us, and our ego.

On the other hand, we can look at gossip as slander, and something that damages us. We might not enjoy what others have to say about us. Gossip can be very damaging to us, causing to have bad reputations among our peers for acts that aren’t necessarily the truth, or entirety of what happened. Bad reputations lead to unsuccessful social skills, which lead to a more difficult life. Through gossip, sometimes we can discover that those we have considered our friends, actually are not. It can easily be said, that most gossip is about awkward, suggestive, and just plain bad actions that may or may not be the truth. Yet, that is still what is relayed to our friends, enemies, and people we know. Teenagers are, without a doubt, mostly concerned about our social status, and how we want to be perceived by our peers. So, the negative effects of most gossip seem to be one of our greatest fears.

When looking at the pros and cons of gossip, we can see that the bad effects of gossip outweigh the positives. Gossip hurts, and seems to have a general negative effect on us in this day and age. And so, I would have to say that I agree to the claim that number 28 on our list makes.