Language of society

Recently i met my ex-colleague,kind of strange though...my usual defensive self was absent that day. Perhaps it was when i know that she is not so into people's bad things...the following days saw us getting closer, talking to each other everyday...understanding each other better...but then out of no where she told me that she had heard a lot of things bout me before...as usual, a lot of bad things... i stopped her and said, i don't really wanna know what you heard about me. a person i looked up to once told me, the lesser you know about all this things, the lesser upset you will be...and IT'S REALLY TRUE...
What better terms can be used to describe a person's desire to find out things of another person. nowadays, almost everyone seems quite comfortable talking about bad things of other people. iIt bothers me though...when i see someone can go to such an extent just to find out more about a friend's personal life or problems. Are people's like that interesting? For example is it wrong for a single guy going after a female colleague who is also single? or is it wrong for two friends of the opposite sex to hangout together in a club? I don't know about you guys out there but if there is anyone that talks to me about this kind of things, i will just say," enough already, because i am not really that into people's private life." perhaps it was the experience that i had...Where simple incidents become rumours and the rumours end up being the talk of the town. Often i wonder, what joy is there in talking about people? What happiness do you get in spreading lies and stories about someone? Must all conversations include all this? Whatever a person had done, or however a person is, he or she does not deserve all this. Well i am not talking about a murder or anything like that. just that even hearing to these kind of things about someone behind their backs disgusts me, and you don't even have to mention talking bout it...Imagine one day, if you found out people are talking bout you or worst of all your family, about something that in untrue or something else that make your ears hurt, How will you feel? if someone were to say that you caused your best friend to break up with her boy friend, or when you heard a story about you and a girl checked into a hotel for a one night stand 'thing', but the truth is that you two only had a drink at the hotel lobby?
SAD, but it's true that people talk...but i just hope that whoever comes across this, will stop or at least avoid talking bout people. Don't victimise your friend for your own pleasure. and most of all, it's NOT fun and it will hunt you back someday.