i cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have gossipy bitchy littl pirvate group chats or discord servers with like 4 people in them whose stated purpose is posting ānew kind of guyā or āthis reddit post is so fuckin dumbā or āi got into a fight on twitter today look at this idiotās replyā so your homies can still see it and laugh and back you up but more importantly, so you are not tempted to post these kind of things on main
# you can also practice just having self control in private in general # for example i do my best to never shit talk actual people ever # i can guarantee you that if you never form the habit of talking about anyone behind their back you will not do that. Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
seriously, there really is no reason to gossip, the wholeĀ āeveryone does itā rings hard like all thoseĀ āeveryone spanks their kidsā bullshit. Yeah they do, and you still shouldnāt do that. Pick up a weird hobby like organizing bricks by color in minecraft like the rest of us.Ā
Mmmm, gonna back op on this one.
I kind of wonder what youāre picturing when you hear this, because what Iām picturing is stuff like critiquing the fanfic we read way more frankly than we ever would to an authorās face.
āGossipā has a number of important social functions, and like any other social interaction it is a tool that can be used in good or bad ways.
We discuss positive and negative interactions weāve had later and in private with our friend groups because this helps us process them. It can be a vibe check (ādoes it seem like this person was acting out of line towards me?ā) or an analysis (āwhy do you think they did that? what do you think I should have done?ā) or data compilation (āis this a pattern? has this happened to anyone else?ā) or data sharing (āhey this alarming interaction happened, watch outā) or just venting to channel emotions into a place where theyāre safe to have (āfriend is processing bad thing and Iām upset on their behalf, so I need do my own processing somewhere elseā).
If you canāt complain about your boss to your friends, how do you even figure out what bad boss behavior looks like?
And when some strangerās being a dick on social media it is usually infinitely healthier and more constructive to go chat that argument out with your friends than to let yourself get sucked into fighting with someone very likely more interested in hurting people than listening.
Figuring out which social circles are the most beneficial places to have which discussions is a huge part of figuring out how to navigate the world and building yourself the support network you need.


















