I was sitting at a newspaper meeting after school one day, listening carefully to another student's personal tragedy, when I realized how much damage a rumor can really cause.
It affects a lot more people than one would think, sometimes whole families depending on (the rumors) size, which usually grows every time the rumor is related to a new person.
There's been a massive, and always distorted, rumor flourishing through the halls of (name of school). No one really knows the truth but everyone has formed an opinion of what has happened. This is typical.
Though I have never been a victim of such hearsay, gossip has taken its toll in my school year after year and in some cases, never died down.
Rumors, whether they are true or not, are binding, a mark on your permanent record, figuratively speaking.
I was walking to class when I heard a group of girls talking about a particular incident and I must admit that my first instinct was to believe it.
Of course what I was hearing was all second hand and had probably been in one ear and out the other several times before it reached me and everyone had added their own exaggerations.
Yet, gossip is not limited to classmates. It often spreads to teachers, parents, other community members, and sometimes, if the rumors propose a threat, the authorities are notified, which could drastically alter someone's life.
The truth of the matter is that gossip isn't just petty high school dribble and it doesn't stop at graduation. Adults are just as guilty as teenagers when it comes to spreading rumors.
Once rumors start circulating, it's almost impossible for them to be stopped and they influence other people's impressions of the persons, both directly and indirectly involved.
This means that gossip can affect a victim's parents, siblings, or other family members causing them an equal amount of distress.
Many people don't realize that when they openly make an assumption based on limited information or something they heard, they could be contributing to a rumor that could be really very hurtful.
I think that everyone, including myself, has gossiped about something of which he or she knew very little and did not take into account that they were adding to someone else's unhappiness.
However even after years of hearing various rumors manipulated and spread throughout my school, I never imagined the grief that they often caused.
It would be hard to say exactly why people spread gossip. Perhaps it's that we're bored with our day-to-day activities and need something to spice our lives. I think that gossip mostly just gives people, in general, something to talk about. We'll talk about anything from ourselves to people we've never met, whatever's interesting.
But can we really be blamed for those natural inclinations? We are exposed to gossip from the time we are capable of watching television. The news itself is a good bit of hearsay. Is there any way of knowing what is true and what's not?
Gossip is all over the television and radio. Talk show host Jerry Springer airs only the juciest and most entertaining. People don't want dull facts; they want shocking details, even if it's only a rumor.
People commonly start gossiping during their teenage years mostly because it's then that people start doing things that are worth talking about.
The worst gossip however is the gossip that's not true and there is no way of knowing whether gossip is true or not. In essence, it's best not to talk about other people; after all you wouldn't want them to be talking about you.
Rumors are like gunshots, once fired by starting or repeating them, they cannot be retrieved. Even if unintentional, rumors, like gunshots, can have devastating effects. Something to keep in mind the next time you hear a rumor.