How to filter gossip
An important illness of today’s society is (negative) gossip.
Gossip consists of casual or idle talk of any sort, usually slanderous and/or devoted to discussing others.
While gossip forms one of the oldest and (still) the most common means of spreading and sharing facts and views (information) , it also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and other variations into the information thus transmitted. The term also carries implications that the news so transmitted (usually) has a personal or trivial nature.
Most people gossip about others, because they are unfulfilled in their own lives. By looking at the excitement or misery of others we can take our minds off our own drudgery.
Generally, we are quick to judge other people and often respond instantaneously to a situation or problem. More often than not, we do not pause for that one moment to say to ourselves, ”If I were in his place, would I have done the same thing?” But do not think about what you would have done or not done from your own point of view. Instead, look at the situation from the other person’s point of view, as if you were in his consciousness, and try to understand him that way.
I see gossip as a shallow act done by shallow people.
A man that has a satisfying life and loves who he is won’t have the time or the enthusiasm to be involved in other people’s affairs. People who don’t enjoy their own lives the ones are attracted to the negativity of others. It feeds their hollow spirits.
Gossip hinders the spiritual and moral growth of an individual and should be treated very carefully. My personal “gossip filtering system” is illustrated very good in the next story.
There once came a man to the wise Socrates. The man was very tired by his hurry and very irritated:
- Socrates, listen to me, I need to tell you how your friend…
- Stop!, the wise-man interrupted him, did you filter what it is that you want to tell me through the three filters?
- Three filters? The man asked in wonder…
- Yes, my good friend. Three filters. The first filter is truth. Did you check that what you want to tell me is true?
- No, I just heard rumors and…
- But you filtered it through the second filter? That is the filter of good. If what you want to tell me isn’t true, it is at least of good nature?
- No, it isn’t, on the contrary…
- Hm – Socrates interrupted him again. Then let’s use the third filter. What you want to tell me, is it useful for me?
- You see, it isn’t so useful right now…
- So what you want to tell me isn’t true, isn’t good and it isn’t useful; then it shall remain buried and it shouldn’t disturb neither of us.
To make a brief conclusion, here are the three questions that you need to ask yourself not only before engaging in gossip, but also before assimilating any information:
- Is the information true?
- Is the information good, positive in nature?
- Is the information of any use to me?
If the answer to all these questions is “yes”, then the information is very useful and it should be consumed.
If only one or two of these questions have “yes” as an answer, accept the information but treat it carefully because it is dangerous and can cause some damage.
Apply these three principles and you will feel a significant improvement in every aspect of your life.
For a better information quality,
Armand
If you're new here and have found useful information, please subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for free Email updates. There are daily updates and you should stay tuned. Thanks for visiting!
or
Subscribe to e-mail updates:
[...] When you hear some rumours about someone you know, don’t go to him and say “someone is talking this and this against you”. When the words have the gossip characters, ignore them. Apply the principles from this story. [...]