Bob a student in middle school is going to school every day worried about if his biggest secret leaked, he was on the verge of hitting a big wall. It was the next day that finally his biggest fear became a reality and what he didn’t see coming was that his best friend Robert was the one who figured it out and also gossiped around school, Robert was always that nice person who told Victor, to not worry about those kind of things.
Imagine this event happening to you and also when you’re at this age, the friendship that was there is suddenly cut off, the friendship and trust after these events is most likely to never connect back together. Two students from Grade 8 in UWCSEA, also speck that their are many gossips that go around school and say that “most of the gossips that I hear are making fun of other students and discriminating them, like making fun of them about their physical looks”. The main reasons that gossips happen in school, is to feel superior, like a part of the group and the biggest of them all to get attention, as student gets older they tend to seek attention and the best way that they think it to gossip about others about something mean and stealing others reputation.
But when you say something mean, or reveal information that should be private to someone, it all changes. Also most of the times, the students who tell the gossips are not even sure if it’s true. They just interpret things that they haven’t even seen happen, these are how gossips are started they start with a small event and frequently explodes into something very different from the truth.
There are many different ways to avoid these gossips and the danger behind them, which can have a very big impact on people. Trust and the friendship with other can be a very big deal for people and it is unfair for people to just cut it instantaneously, also when half of the gossips that goes around school is false information, that is used to increase the gossipers reputation.
One of the ways to avoid harmful gossips is to be knowledgeable about the information that you are hearing or saying and be able to differentiate the gossips that are harmful and the ones that are not. On top of that only gossip about things that the people want to know, don’t gossips about things that people will not want to hear. For example, a person was cheating with his wife, even if this was a true fact people will not want to know that.
One of the ways to avoid harmful gossips is to be knowledgeable about the information that you are hearing or saying and be able to differentiate the gossips that are harmful and the ones that are not. On top of that only gossip about things that the people want to know, don’t gossips about things that people will not want to hear. For example, a person was cheating with his wife, even if this was a true fact people will not want to know that.
The next way to avoid harmful gossips is to do something about the problem, rather that just uttering to every people you meet, do something about the problem, and find a solution to stop what is causing this harmful gossiping. For example, you are complaining about your ex-boy/girlfriend, about how mean and a bad people they were, this mainly caused because you still have a connection on the social media for example, just completely cut them off this will help wasting your time complaining and could use it to have a more fun and bright life.
The last way to avoid harmful gossips is to change the subject to a more subject if the gossips are negative or tell them that you are not interested about that topic and type of rumor, if this is not working just disengage with the person, just walk away. There may be peer pressure but if it’s for the better not to know some harmful information, just disengage with the person talking to you. There are much more ways to avoid listening and saying harmful rumors and gossips. Always think about what you're saying and check if it can be harmful to other people, because harmful gossips can destroy friendship and trust with the people around you.
Lastly concluding the whole idea, gossips are allowed wherever you are and definitely shouldn’t be discouraged but their is a line of a gossips that is acceptable and not, and being self aware and noticing these lines are on you, thus also meaning that spreading gossips that people don’t want to hear is obnoxious and shouldn’t be aloud. The biggest dangers with mean gossips is the beginning of a trustworthy relation with another person.
I think that your topic was unique and even though we don't talk about this stuff too much in the real world, I can definitely connect to it. Gossiping happens almost everywhere. Schools are one of the majour homes of gossiping. People gossipping about others is almost the story of every shool. I could really imaging myself in my old school and how people formed groups and spoke bad about others.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the fact that you had lost of information- interviews and studies, to back up your reasoning and the way you thought. Good job!