Internet Gossip

OK, this might come across a little strongly but that's just because I, personally, feel VERY strongly about it. Be not offended. :)

Most of us know the definition of gossip or the general gist of what it is:

Here is the American Heritage Dictionary's official definition:
GOSSIP
NOUN:
Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature.
A person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts.
Trivial, chatty talk or writing.
A close friend or companion.
Chiefly British A godparent.

Definition of a RUMOR (also from the American Heritage Dictionary)
NOUN:
A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.
Unverified information received from another; hearsay.

I COMPLETELY despise gossip of any form. I take great caution to stay away from it. That is not to say that I've never done it. I have. It ruined a friendship for me in high school and I never wanted to do it again. I slip every now and then and have to catch myself from saying something, stopping in the middle of a blurted sentence when I realized I was doing it, or find a way to graciously leave a conversation quickly going in the gossip, rumor, or hearsay direction.

That said, I have noticed that the new form of "accepted gossip/rumors" is through email forwards. I REALLY REALLY DISLIKE getting forwards such as this:
Love him or hate him, Bill Gates sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

It's not like this one even matters but I checked it out on snopes.com and it did NOT come from Bill Gates.

Among various other false information I have received via email I have received ones that warned about snakes in Burger King ball pits, poisonous spiders under toilet seats in bathrooms, many false viruses/statements.

While those things are generally not a big deal PLEASE DO NOT pass things on as fact UNLESS YOU CHECK THEM OUT FIRST!! When I first started really getting into the Net I was truly embarrassed to be called on the carpet about something I passed on as fact. The person gave me the snopes info and now I try to always check it out. The annoying thing to me is that people believe these false warnings and statements and never check them out before forwarding them on to me.
What really killed me what happened to me a couple of years ago. One of my friends kept sending me false info forwards via email so many times that I finally, kindly, directed her to snopes.com. Knowing this person I figured I wouldn't be bothered with false info so much anymore. Wrong. The next one she sent was one informing me that she hadn't yet checked it out but I COULD IF I WANTED TO!!! LOL I was dumbfounded. :) I couldn't believe that she still forwarded it to me, being too lazy to check it herself, and told me to check it out for validity.
That is gossip and that is rumor. GO TO THE SOURCE people. Don't pass things on as innocent stories when you know very well you would never do that in real life. You wouldn't pass on something (in the 3-D world) about someone as fact unless you first checked it out.

The one that really irritated me a while back was the Obama one where he "refused to have his hand over his heart" during the playing of a National Anthem. Now, while the photo was true. One photo does not tell the whole story: here is what Snopes has to say about it:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp

Not long after receiving this email as a forward I was in the breakfast area at our fairly large church when I overheard two older people discussing this. They were saying how horrible it was and how we certainly didn't want a person for president who "refused" to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem. I waited till they were done conversing and when I just couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer I turned to the woman (who I had not yet met) and asked her if she had gotten that as an email forward. She replied that she had and I told her that I had checked it out and while that photo was true, there were other photos of him placing his hand over his heart. She looked a bit taken aback and told me she had never thought to check out a picture. I smiled and said that pics could be spliced. She nodded in agreement and then we properly introduced ourselves. I don't support Obama and I won't vote for him but I could not stand by and let someone trash his character over a RUMOR that was circulating via email. Good grief there are more constructive ways to disagree over Obama than a half truth.

SO, check your sources every time!! It really does make a difference. We don't want to be people circulating rumors and half-truths. We want to be people of integrity.

I'm not on a high horse here...only a soap box. I'm reminding myself as well. That said, it's time to step down from my soapbox and go to bed. Goodnight!
Blessings!-Angela :)