Social Media and the Value of Truth by Berrin Beasley

Author:Berrin Beasley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Vance Ricks

Gossip in the Digital Age

5

Vance Ricks

Introduction

Gossip is both a source of deep pleasure and of deep anxiety, touching on our beliefs and feelings about exposure, reputation, and control. It is something that many people do and that very few people feel comfortable engaging in, at least not without a lot of rationalizing. In this chapter, I examine gossip “in general” before arguing that in an era of widespread online connectivity, we may need to rethink both the nature and the possible consequences of gossip. I make a few presumptions: that gossip in-itself is normatively loaded but morally neutral; and that in a digital age characterized by nearly at-will online connectivity and interaction, discerning between good and bad gossip might be more difficult.

My discussion proceeds in a few stages. I'll first explain why gossip might be philosophically interesting. Next, I'll clarify and defend the two presumptions listed above, by examining some of the possible social and political consequences of gossip in societies like ours, where the use of online technologies is increasing and increasingly ubiquitous. I’ll also explore how the meaning of gossip itself might be affected by those technologies.

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