In small towns, gossip moves to the Web, and turns vicious

MOUNTAIN GROVE, Mo. — In the small towns nestled throughout the Ozarks, people like to say that everybody knows everybody’s business — and if they do not, they feel free to offer an educated guess.

One of the established places here for trading the gossip of the day is Dee’s Place, a country diner where a dozen longtime residents gather each morning around a table permanently reserved with a members-only sign for the "Old Farts Club," as they call themselves, to talk about weather, politics and, of course, their neighbors.

But of late, more people in this hardscrabble town of 5,000 have shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over eggs and coffee to the Mountain Grove Forum on a social media Web site called Topix, where they write and read startlingly negative posts, all cloaked in anonymity, about one another.

And in Dee’s Place, people are not happy. A waitress, Pheobe Best, said that the site had provoked fights and caused divorces. The diner’s owner, Jim Deverell, called Topix a "cesspool of character assassination." And hearing the conversation, Shane James, the cook, wandered out of the kitchen tense with anger.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44592124/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_york_times/

Guess he wrong!

Topix eh? Got to read it all............LOL

Bet same happens all over globe. Society fragmenting soon? Hmmmmmmmmmm big event!

Ur BFF
Sam
LOL :-)

Not it is just more public because of the web.

People here don't need the Web to bash their neighbors and "friends". If something happens, it's all over town in minutes.

The neighbors know when you flush.

This is what happens in our town.

I had surgery about ten years ago. It was just months after we moved here. The procedure went fine, I had a speedy and complete recovery. It wasn't like we told a lot of people it was happening, either. I was walking down Main Street on my way to a business one morning. A woman I had never met before stopped me and said, "I heard you had surgery. How are you feeling?"

We see the same people every day at the store, the post office, the gas station... I can't even imagine how much more exposed one would be in a town of 1,000.

:woohoo:

My parents were raised in a very small midwestern town--one where my cousins and extended family remained. I am often very grateful my parents moved away because of the pain of the gossip mills, years before internet and social media. This has to just be a "pain machine" for those not protected within the cloak of the local clique'. Damn...

living like the plague just for those reasons.

I grew up in a small town... no, not Mexico City... the Jewish Community... it behaved the same way...

Why the story resonated

current 2012 pres. poll, they are all voting in favor of Obama.

any small town dirt is bestseller-worthy.

It did not take long until more names and places were added to that story. There were actually some tasteful people on the thread, but somebody got nasty.

Very relieved that everyone here (population 5,000) is civil, and the topics range from "remember to vote!" to "please attend the film festival!" There were plenty of thank-yous for posting various articles, too.

I'd hate to live in Mountain Grove.

hateful comment. I was surprised and relieved. People around here are pretty laid back about hatefulness it seems.

It is extremely petty, immature and really pathetic.

now with so many kids on facebook have the same ability. just a to do in my sons high school, with another high school, that brought in the parents. at least with written words, you can see what actually transpired.

my kids dont play on social networks. they can when they leave the house and they really dont have an interest. but my son was telling me more kids are getting off. and though tough at first, worth it in the long term.

those that just hate to hate and post really inane stuff.

which is bad enough because there are still neighborhood gossips but people move around too often to cause much lasting damage.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=6960397

Not only that, but the Paris, TX Topix is one of the foulest, racist, semen pits in the country.