Rumors have been alive ever since the first humans could speak. Most of us think of a rumor as something like: 'Well, Stacy told Kellie, who heard it from Jess, who heard it from Nick, who got it from Seth''. The problem with this chain of information is that what you are hearing is usually not true. Sure, part of the story derived from some source of truth, but after a certain point, the story gets changed. It's that large (or even small) change in the story, which makes all the difference.

We see and hear rumors constantly, in our everyday lives. Maybe your teacher missed school for a week, and it's going around that he/she got arrested, when in actuality, your teacher had been out, sick with the flu. Maybe your friend heard that your other friend said something about you behind your back. Or maybe you heard that your favorite celebrity dumped his girlfriend over the phone. Either way, a rumor is a rumor; definitely not something to rely on.

To kill a rumor, people need to understand that everything they hear isn't meant to be spread around. Some things are meant to be private, not public. And, even if something IS meant to be public, it is imperative that the sources are questioned before believing the story that was just told. Not questioning sources, leads to gossip. And gossip hurts.


Gossip is like a hungry wolverine, eating away at the souls of the people involved in the gossip. The more stories that are thrown out to the public, the more people attack them. Celebrity gossip is a perfect example. The media is constantly trying to tell us which celebrities to support, and which to hate. What qualifies them to decide those things? Do they know the whole story? People need to remember that celebrities are human beings and that they have feelings, just like us. Many people think that just because they heard something on a famous news station, that it must be true. Well, a lot of the information that is broadcasted isn't 100% true, because it's based too much on opinions, meaning that it is very biased. Relying on everything you hear in the media, makes you misinformed. The same thing goes for what you hear from word-of-mouth.

So, before you pick up your phone and call your friend to tell her that you heard someone said a girl in your school is in the hospital for a drug overdose, question your source. Is that something that you really want to be spreading around? You never know who that information may reach. Even if you didn't mean to take something as far as you did, it still went there. What's your best bet to stop spreading a rumor? Close your mouth. Check your sources. If you don't know the whole story, then you shouldn't be talking about it.