Social Media: Gossip Girls, The Peep Culture

It starts young. Six year olds whispering about who is boyfriend and girlfriend, who likes who and guess who was in the tree K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Unfortunately getting older doesn't add sophistication just levels of animosity and hate. That girl is up herself, that guy moved on awful fast, he shouldn't see her, they are having sex, did you hear about what she did to those other guys...... Gossip is prevalent and not going anywhere.

In 2006, Twitter enters the online market with a simple idea, to broadcast SMS style messages to an audience. A harmless idea in 2006, largely baulked at by peers, has grown into an international success with over 100 million subscribers. The world stepped into the peep culture.

Peep culture is best described by Hal Niedzviecki in The Peep Diaries,

We have entered the age of "peep culture": a tell-all, show-all, know-all digital phenomenon that is dramatically altering notions of privacy, individuality, security, and even humanity. Peep culture is reality TV, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, over-the-counter spy gear, blogs, chat rooms, amateur porn, surveillance technology, Dr. Phil, Borat, cell phone photos of your drunk friend making out with her ex-boyfriend, and more. In the age of peep, core values and rights we once took for granted are rapidly being renegotiated, often without our even noticing.

So what does it really mean to us? Gossip, on a large scale and generally through people with no real knowledge of the person they are gossiping about is dangerous. Gossip passes so quickly, any ounce of truth is passed off for the muddy story, the lies and deceit. In an online environment, where relationships are formed and lost so passionately and quickly, friendship is a tradable commodity.

So who can you trust? The answer is everybody but it comes with conditions. To survive in a Twitter world you have to accept everybody at face value. If you really like someone but hear they have been talking about you behind your back, consider the source. File the information under gossip and move on. It's likely to be a concoction or a muddle of chinese whispers regurgitated by someone who really doesn't like you.

What happens if I find out exactly who has been lying and gossiping about me? Block and remove them. It wont stop them gossiping about you but it will remove some of their ability to spy and twist your innocent tweets. The simple act of blocking someone carries a lot of power in the Twitter world, I'm always surprised by just how many people get upset by an un-follow.

Online Gossip has been most damaging to me personally over the last few months. It has caused fights that have lasted days between my ex and I and it has hurt people close to me. If we don't remove its power it will destroy all our real world relationship leaving us with...... Twitter.

Continue to check back as I spend the week analysing the peep culture before removing myself from the party.