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While having lunch with friends I had not seen in a while, someone brought up the recent newspaper articles about the Sofa Super Store fire and “their” belief of the information being printed about the fire chief’s negligence. Of course, being the outspoken person that I am, I proceeded to tell my friend how rumors and gossip can hurt a person’s credibility and ruin careers. In turn, our “friendly” lunch turned into a debate about the effects of gossiping and the results of someone not being able to defend themselves against things that are not in there control.
It does not take a lot of effort to get the attention of other’s when you begin to gossip about your beliefs of the truth as perceived by what you read and hear. Whether true or not, most of us participate in either listening to or spreading our perceptions of what is being said about another person. Have I been guilty of gossiping? Yes. Have I been the victim of gossip by others? Absolutely. Do people enjoy gossiping about others? I believe so, or it would have stopped a long time ago. It seems to be human nature to listen to and participate in the “spreading of the word”.
Unfortunately, gossiping is at its worst today, and we, the general public, “feed the need” by opening our eyes and ears via the things being printed, said, and splashed on the television and internets. It does not seem to matter if someone is at the happiest moment or the lowest point in their lives, people do not perceive the same ideas about the things they hear and see, thus, gossip is born.

Introduced in 1916, America’s first gossip column, Broadway Brevities, covered everyone from high ranking socialites to celebrities of the New York theatre, tales of scandal and misfortune kept the attention of many a reader. By 1932, the stories had become so hardcore for the era, tales of sex, drugs, gangs and violence, that New York newsstands were banned from carrying the column, thus eventually leading to...