Gossip

“I have a gossip problem. I stir the pot. I'm a pot-stirrer.” - Shirley, Community

It's easy to have a fairly narrow definition of gossip, such that the behaviors you typically engage in fall outside it. For example, if your definition of gossip is "talking badly about someone else," then as long as you don't say anything outright malicious about another person, it's not gossip. Right?

On the other hand, taking a more broad view, why talk about someone else at all?  To praise her virtue?  To make fun of him?  To provide helpful advice to someone in dealing with the other person?  Motivation definitely matters, and it's important to stop and think before you take someone's name in vain.

What if you're not saying anything specifically about the other person, but just passing along news about what the person said, did, implied, incited, etc.?  You're just passing it along, to keep everyone informed, and isn't that a good thing?

No.

No, actually it's not a good thing if what you are really doing is stirring the pot.

I work in a high school, and sometimes I wonder what it would be like if everyone, students, teachers, administration, cut out two things from their conversation, and gossip is one of them.

Do you ever have a conversation with someone who incessantly talks about other people, and you just wonder, "What is this person saying about me when I am not around?"  Yeah.  That's the kind of person you end up avoiding.  Don't be that person.