Why the fascination?

What is the fascination most folks seem to have with other people's lives? Why do people spend hours in front of the TV to catch a glimpse of their favorite celebrity or spend a fortune on bad magazines to learn the favorite food of someone? Why do we care who is dating whom? Why do people constantly slow down and screw up traffic even more so they can look when an accident has occurred? Is it some sense of morbid curiosity? Does it directly impact us? No. So get over it!

What brings this up? Well, the other day I was chatting with a new friend. I met S at a campout down in SoCal a few weeks ago with the Hash House Harriers. I love the hash. It's a fantastic group that allows you to just be yourself and you don't have to apply a filter. Plus you get to drink lots of beer after exercising. You also get to meet great folks from all over the world. However, as one friend said, "The great thing about the hash is anyone can come. The bad thing about the hash is anyone can come." It's true of any group I suppose.

One thing I've noticed in the hash is that everyone always wants to know who is sleeping with whom. Does it really matter? The gossip that goes around the hash is worse than 13 year old girls with too much time on their hands and cell phones. It's almost impressive...almost. Anyway, at the campout S and I ended up snogging. Then he slept in my tent. No big thing. Perhaps I should state that I am the random make-out girl, not the random shag girl. Just not my style. However, in the hash it is generally assumed that if you snog someone, you're going to have sex with them. Don't ask me why. Probably because a lot of that does happen there and God forbid if you don't follow the crowd. Anyway, you can read more about the night's antics here. For the record, S and I were the two on the couch who 'seemed to have a bit of class.'

Very few, if any, stories exist about me in the hash. There's a reason. If I do make-out with someone, it's not done in a public setting. I don't feel the need to share it with everyone or make a big deal about it. I guess I just believe certain things are private matters. However, I learned that someone either found out or guessed about S and I from the campout. Then this person took it one step further by assuming we had sex. To make it more complicated, there's one hasher that both S and this other person, let's call him P, both like. Apparently P feels the need to tell this hasher everything S does in the hopes that it will ingratiate him to her. So, to top it all off, P went to this person and told her. So suddenly, what was a rather innocent evening has turned into "ammunition" in a battle that only exists in two y chromosome's heads. And now a wider audience knows that S and I snogged.

It just makes me wonder wtf? Do people who spread the gossip and especially those who use the info in the manner in which P has think it makes them look cool? Do they really think it is going to make them look better in someone else's eyes? To me it just makes you look like an idiot. Worry about your own life. This isn't the playground. It's not time to go tattle to the teacher so you can get an A on the next test. Personally, I wouldn't want to date someone who felt the need to do that. I either like you or I don't. You bad-mouthing someone else who likes me isn't going to suddenly improve my opinion of you.

I just don't get it. Is your own life really that boring that you not only have to live vicariously through someone else, you have to tell others about it as well? When did society deem it okay for your "friends" to take private affairs and make them public? Are people really so unhappy in their lives that they need to feel they play a part, however miniscule it may be, in someone else's?