I was looking up "gossip" on the internet and our trusted source Wikipedia has a lot on it... I especially found the possible functions of gossip interesting especially since they make gossip out to be a productive activity to a large extent... This should interest Amitendu especially...
Gossip can serve to:
- normalise and reinforce moral boundaries in a speech-community
- foster and build a sense of community with shared interests and information
- build structures of social accountability
- further mutual social grooming (like many other uses of language, only more so)
- provide a mating tool that allows (for example) women to mutually identify socially desirable men and compare notes on which men are better than others.
- be used as a form of passive aggression, as a tool to isolate and harm others
- provide a peer-to-peer mechanism for disseminating information in organizations
Lemme know what you think about these....
by Nao! , on Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Cheers Shilpa! Finally our Cyber Discourse classes are bearing fruits! Search Engines! Wiki, blogging and ... ahem!
Anyway my favourite is:
"provide a mating tool that allows (for example) women to mutually identify socially desirable men and compare notes on which men are better than others" - reminds me of our "Victorian" classes!
Looking forward to what Omit will say...
by Nao! , on Thursday, May 21, 2009
Talking about gossip, here is something I would like to share...
http://subculturegossip.blogspot.com/
It describes itself as "A forum for defamation, rumour, lies, deliberate falsehoods and unsubstantiated allegations..."
and the tag they use:
"And the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, so help me God, Your Honour."
Check it out!