Gossip in the age of Social Media

It occurred to me that we have forgotten what the Bible has to say about gossip. Or it could be that folks never knew what the Bible has to say about it. Or it could be that someone did a search for the word Gossip and found that it is only used one time in the whole Bible and thus it must be an okay thing to do, not that bad a thing, really only waved at. But is that true?

Here’s the one verse:

“And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not” (1 Tim 5:13). 

I’m pretty sure what happens is that people look this verse up, check out the context, and notice that Paul warning Timothy not to put young widows on the widow’s list because they are prone to drift off into all sorts of bad habits. “But I’m not a young widow, so the verse doesn’t apply to me,” you might say. Okay, fine. 

But take another look at the verse. While it is saying that young widows are weak in a number of areas, it is not saying that if you’re not a young widow it is okay for you to be doing these things. It isn’t okay to be idle if you’re not a young widow. It isn’t okay to wander from house to house, or to be a gossip or a busybody. It isn’t okay to say things that you should not say. It’s just that in this particular case, Timothy shouldn’t provide church money to sponsor this kind of behavior.

So, it isn’t good to be a gossip. Notice that the things on this list all go together. Gossips tend to be idle. They have nothing else to do. They aren’t busy with the stuff of life. In our day, they have time to surf the web, or to spend hours on Facebook or whatever other social media site they prefer.

Gossips tend to be busybodies. For whatever reason, they care about what is going on in other people’s lives and they rejoice to know those juicy details. It may be because they have no life of their own or it may be because they enjoy watching other people suffer, or they are drawn to the sensational or something else. In our day, folks who spend a lot of time on social media are just as caught up in the salaciousness of the latest “news” as gossips were before the computer age.

Another word for people who love gossip is gossipmonger. These are people who not only like to listen to the latest news about other people (gossip), they also pass the news along to anyone who will listen to them. I think it makes them feel like part of the party, one of the gang, maybe a leader among their peers. But whatever the reason, they have become gossipers and are saying things they ought not.

Someone might say that simply reading stuff about other people on the web isn’t really being a gossipmonger, but we become gossipmongers when we electronically react to the “news.” We all know that when you click on a post that says you “like” it, or that you have that smiley face or whatever, Facebook sends that post to a zillion other people. And so, the “news” is spread all over the world because people are “reacting” to the original post. When you come across something that is juicy news, or sad news, or makes me angry news, but after all is said and done, is gossip, and you react or share it, you have just become guilty of gossip. And folks, you are sinning. It is sin to enjoy reading about the trouble that other people are having. It is sin to pass this information along to others. It is sin to rejoice in the suffering incurred by those we think have suffered.

Here’s a quick way to know if you are gossiping or not. If you hear a bit of spicy/juicy/sad/hard/etc. information and you are thrilled to hear it, you have just listened to gossip. If that information is about someone else and you pass that information along (in any way) to anyone who cannot actually help the person or situation, you are gossiping.

Image by meinTAL from Pixabay