Gossiping on campus a fast-growing problem

Jas Sherlag

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Opinion

During my college search, I knew I'd feel most comfortable at a school with fewer than 5,000 students. I wanted a college with relatively small classes where individual attention was available. Drew University appeared to be the most promising in offering me a hands-on, personal experience. However, I failed to realize just how personal things could get.

Let's be honest, gossip at Drew spreads more quickly than wildfire. Sure, it's a small school and it's difficult to have privacy in such close quarters, but that can't be the only factor contributing to the vicious rumors that travel around here. Some people blame campus gossip on the whole notion of everyone knowing everyone, but I find this excuse to be a total cop-out. The media has a number of names for our generation, but in my opinion we are a bunch of Perez Hilton-reading, rumor-obsessed, nosy, blathering busybodies.

One minute I will be walking with one of my friends listening to them gab away about how so-and-so is "skanky" and the next minute watch them be all buddy-buddy with the person they were so fervently talking about. Quite a few people I have encountered find it perfectly acceptable to reveal secrets that were entrusted to them alone and betray and backstab the people they consider good friends. To them, it's not betrayal or backstabbing, it's a form of entertainment and a way to form a common bond-even if it is at the expense of another. I'll be the first to admit that I am as guilty of gossiping as any other person on campus, but at what point is it enough?

I'd like to think that our lives are a lot more important than who we're dating, what happened at Saturday night's party and who got busted by Public Safety. So when there's any bit of melodrama in one of our friend's lives, why do we feel the need to share every detail? It's like we all have this gossip blog complex where we love to divulge the juiciest info possible for a few laughs, social acceptance and even just basic knowledge. Let's face it, we are not some fabulous, pink-haired gossip machine and our friends-at least for most of us-are certainly not famous. Are our own lives really so vapid and mundane that we have nothing better to talk about than our friend's personal issues? And don't justify gossiping as a way to escape life's problems, because we all know that talking crap does more harm than good.

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