Ladies and gentlmen, I welcome you to Insights in which I try to throw a little of my own perspective light onto topics with which people mail me. No subject is too off-the-wall or taboo; I'll stick my neck out on anything.
In an age where technology is more advanced than many would have speculated a mere twenty-five years ago, where speed is of the utmost importance, where quality is oft-times decreased so faster output is a result, what could possibly move quicker than the modem capabilities of E-mail, traversing thousands of miles in no time at all? Not much really, but gossip tends to move quicker with no direction.
While this may be an age of knowledge, it's also been repeatedly shown to be an age where people care very little for the truth. People want to be shocked, and with transvestite hookers who ate their children can be found on daytime talk shows, it's pretty hard to be shocked by the truth. So how do you get around it? Bend it. Stretch it. Yank on it. (I'm talking about the truth, you pervs) Manipulate it until it's something that people aren't expecting.
Who knows? Maybe it starts out as a truth, and like a child's game of Telephone, with each passing whisper from one ear to another, details change, facts are lossed and suplimented with ideas. I can testify as a witness that a majority of people don't listen. They don't pay attention to what is said, or they overhear things improperly. And to make up for it, their mind tries to fill in the blanks. Example from my communications class:
Our teacher had six people go outside. He then asked for a volunteer who considered themselves to be a good listener, to which I volunteered. He then related this story:
"On my way to class, I witnessed an accident. Since I didn't wish to be late, I conveyed the information I saw to a passerby to tell the police. Here's what happened: An orange truck was driving northbound towards a yellow sportscar traveling southbound. They approached an intersection with the truck turning right and the car to the left. They honked at each other but both continued to turn. The sportscar accelerated, bounced off the front of the truck, careened into four yellow barrels, a brown telephone pole, a grey truck, and into the side of a house containing a man, his wife, and a pregnant chihuahua." [Note: This is from oh, four weeks ago, and I still remember the story]
Then, he brought in one person, I related the story to them. Then he brought in the second, and the first related to them, etc., down to the fifth person relating to the sixth who then related it back to Mr. Ayers as such:
You were in an accident on the way to school when you ran over a pregnant chihuahua.
Gossip is the inevitable result when people talk more than they listen. The only usefulness it has is the same as the game Telephone: amusement. Jake brought gossip to my attention as he has had rumors concerning the fact he's: 1)gay, 2)sleeping with the cashiers at work, 3)a pedophile. Outside of the fact he's now dating a cashier, none of these were true.
There's not a whole lot more I can really say concerning gossip. I know there'll never be a halt to it. No sooner should one be killed off than half a dozen start. If you're a civilized human being, and you know the truth, don't less gossip continue. Kill off what you can with real knowledge. It'll make you a better human being. At least that's what this one guy at work who heard it from a friend who knows somebody told me.
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