لخّصلي

I hate gossip.She proceeded to tell me allthe "news" about people I knew, and people that I had never heard of. None of it washarmful on its own but it was infinitely boring and awkward. I honestly felt I was wastingmy time and hers for no obvious reason. I also became very reluctant to share any of my"news" because I felt that it would very likely become public property.She then told me about someone else whocarried on like me-someone I knew-and how sick she had gotten through overworkthat she had to be hospitalized for about four months.

I hate gossip. I find it boring and destructive. Yet, so much in the media, in publications,and on the Web is based on gossip. A lot of people have become so heavilyconditioned to it that they fail to recognize it as gossip. They regard it as news:information for public consumption.

I met an older friend that I had not seen for some time. She proceeded to tell me allthe "news" about people I knew, and people that I had never heard of. None of it washarmful on its own but it was infinitely boring and awkward. I honestly felt I was wastingmy time and hers for no obvious reason. I also became very reluctant to share any of my"news" because I felt that it would very likely become public property.

At some point, she realized that I was not engaged in the conversation and attributed amy attitude to my obsession with work. So, she started lecturing me on the negativeeffects of not having some normal time off. She then told me about someone else whocarried on like me-someone I knew-and how sick she had gotten through overworkthat she had to be hospitalized for about four months. I started feeling physically sick.