Sunday, June 19, 2011

A little gossip ...

Gossip. I guess its the most favorite thing in the world to do. No effort. No gain. But full of excitement and unadulterated satisfaction. Ya. Everyone loves it. Most of them do it. I am sure gossiping would come mighty close in the list of the top contenders for the world's oldest profession. I dont know why it is so luring? What is it about gossip that draws so much interest among both men and women? Though the general notion is that women are more adept at it, men do well to keep up. In fact, gossip may be as potent as the temptation of lust. Probably more ...

Spare a thought for the folks who are the unwitting victims of gossip. It can take a toll on anyone's career, wealth, fame, reputation, and most certainly relationships. You can see its footprints all over your life. At home. At work. Especially at the local stores where a bunch of gossip friendly people may congregate. Something that captivates me is this: Is gossip an art? Or can it be even interpreted as a science? One step further: Can it be cultivated as a strategic skill? Think about it. It has been used so many times before to bring down political foes. It has been exercised to topple managements in boardrooms across the world. It has been used to mastermind great upheavals in the stock markets. So these questions do beg a consideration.

It is quite possible that gossip gains in strength when it is concomitant with restraint. I know thats quite an antithesis. I mean just the two concepts: gossip and restraint. The sole point of gossip is to relay the information to the next point as fast as possible. This axiomatic truth is the basis of almost every single social tool that we have today on the Internet. Think about it. Email, Instant messengers, Facebook, Twitter, and even Groupon exist and thrive due to this karmic rule. If its interesting, it must spread. If its gossip, then it cannot wait. Now, add a touch of restraint. In a world of perfect order (meaning gossip spreads rapidly), this brings some randomness. In regular terms, people "choose" which gossip to follow and when. How does this matter? I dont know. Just a thought. It probably makes it more strategic and allows the user to manipulate the level of influence. Now, this can be a remarkable ability if you are dealing with competitors in a tightly closed maze. A maze where the pace of information is as important as the information itself.

Anyways, I need to figure this out a little more. More specifically, I need to understand how gossip ends. What factors relate to a "news" from being stopped in its tracks? Who decides when it stops? Interesting questions. Signing off for now on a thoughtful quote from Oscar Wilde: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

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