Rumor has it

Gossip engulfs our lives, whether it is from our friends or on the front page of the tabloid magazines in line at the grocery store.

We have all heard gossip. We have all told gossip. We have all been a part of gossip, whether we want to be or not.

The problem with gossip is the accuracy. How do you know what your friend told you is really true? What is the source of the information?

You may be familiar with a campfire game “Telephone” where one person starts by whispering a message to another and it gets passed along. By the time the message reaches the last person, the initial message is obsolete. Sometimes there are tidbits left, but what this game shows is how distorted information can become in a short amount of time.

I hear lots of gossip around campus, but I never know what to believe. Gossip spreads like wildfire, and it is most likely not accurate.

The point I want to make is be careful when you hear gossip and even more careful before spreading around the gossip. Gossip can lead to rumors and possibly become hurtful to individuals involved.

I would hope it is not the intention of someone to hurt another with a rumor, but sometimes it happens.

I am always skeptical about talking with people while gossip is flying around. I never know what to believe when I hear something new. I want to trust and believe people but not when I am hearing a different version of the story elsewhere.

It truly baffles me to no end how gossip turns into rumors so fast. We all just need to slow down before we open our mouths to hinder the information in the first place.

If we took a second to truly think about some things we hear, we would realize the information is not correct.

Take more than a second to analyze the information you just learned about it. It may be true, but chances are with how much people gossip it may just be a rumor.

Now, you would not want a rumor about you spreading throughout campus, would you?