As a kid, I always liked the game telephone. In case you’ve never played, here is the premise: one person makes a statement, whether fact or fiction, and whispers it to someone else. The phrase is passed down a line of people until it reaches the very last kid, who then blurts it out. As you can imagine, the end result is usually very different from the original statement, and it’s usually pretty goofy. But this game designed to make children giggle also serves as a sobering metaphor for us as adults.
Think about how twisted the original phrase can become by the time it reaches the end of the line. Changes can be subtle and accidental, or the phrase can be strategically altered to maximize the humorous reaction. Regardless, the players have no way of knowing where pieces started to change or fall out of place; they only get to hear the end result.
As a culture, we don’t place a whole lot of importance on gossip. It is commonplace and second nature. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, until the subject matter hits close to home.
The problem is only made worse when we have the luxury of remaining anonymous. Recently, an Instagram account named “HU Gossip Girl” has gained a good deal of attention. The account reposts pictures of Harding students and makes comments about their daily lives. It started out as something seemingly harmless, but over time the posts have become increasingly personal, and at times even hateful. And while the fact that this account exists makes me cringe, possibly the most disturbing fact is that it is fueled by the student body. Students direct message Harding’s “Gossip Girl” information about their peers and friends and leave it at his or her disposal.
First of all, I can’t think of anyone who would enjoy having the details of their personal life shared with the entire campus, and yet when it comes to the sweet satisfaction of sharing a juicy detail about someone else, the “golden rule” gets momentarily brushed under the rug. Second of all, there is no way of knowing how much, if any, truth lies behind the information in those posts. And yet we as a student body have chosen to eat them up with a big spoon rather than demand the respect each person deserves.
It would be shortsighted to assume that this problem can just go away with the wave of a hand and some stern words. As long as social media exists, there will be accounts like this one. As long as human beings have lips, we will occasionally fall into the bad habit of gossiping. But nonetheless, I would like to deliver a challenge. Rather than hunting down the mysterious “HU Gossip Girl” with pitchforks and torches, I advocate for making it everyone’s responsibility to show more love and compassion towards each other as a student body.
When we speak of each other, let’s speak kindly. Instead of fueling fire, we should take a moment to consider how awful it feels when other people talk about us, especially if misinformation is involved. Instead of focusing on petty details, we should put the bigger picture of loving our neighbors into perspective the next time we open our mouths (or tap our screens). It all boils down to our capacity for love, and how much bigger it needs to grow in comparison to our capacity for serving ourselves.
