T F T F, Gossip Girl

“Is a scandal still a scandal if you can’t text about it?”

Hazel, Gossip Girl

….. Gossip Girl is an American fictional television show based on the lives of socialite teenagers living on the Upper East Side of New York City. The show is centered on an omniscient yet anonymous blogger by the name of Gossip Girl. The blog is a medium for rumor and scandal, updating its readers on the lives of a certain group of Upper East Siders. Tips from text and picture messages are sent to Gossip Girl by friends and enemies alike. You are no one until you have been blogged about.

…..The television show is based on the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar. von Ziegasar created five main characters: bad girl gone good Serena van der Woodson, a clever, conniving, complex beauty Blair Waldorf, pretty boy Nate Archibald, mysterious sex obsessed Chuck Bass, and lonely Brooklyn boy Dan Humphrey. I would like to explore how the characters, the impact it has on the identity of the show and some of the characters, use technology and how this fictional television show compares to real-life use of cellular phones and the Internet.

…..The characters in the novels and the show attend Constance Billard School for Girls and Saint Jude’s School for Boys – wealthy, private brother-sister high schools in New York City. We assume in the series, that despite (or maybe due to) their wealthy, crème de le crème backgrounds, they all have secrets. And of course, in a school so small and a city so big, the secrets somehow, every time, are revealed through Gossip Girl. The use of technology on the show is prominent, but for some reason, we forget that the show is based on this blog. The show opens with Gossip Girl recapping her latest blog update and ends with a new one. Most of her posts have to do with relationships between the characters, scandals between students and teachers, and the addition of a new character on the show. The main use of communication in the show is through text and picture messages yet the constantly changing plot masks the use of technology. 

…..It is interesting to note the power that Gossip Girl has in the Upper East Side world. Contrary to the stereotypes that we assume that men are technology savvy, with the power to control machines, both the male and female characters equally fear Gossip Girl. They are always being watched and in a split second, their actions can be put online for the whole world to see. The identity of the characters, especially Blair Waldorf, is strongly influenced by the blogger. Her identity as the “I can know everything about you” character on the show is based on her connection with Gossip Girl. She is known to constantly scheme against her friends and enemies and constantly tips off Gossip Girl yet she fears to be featured herself.

…..It is known to this group of socialites that if Gossip Girl assumes something, there is a good chance that the rest of the society will assume it too. In the episode titled “Carnal Knowledge,” the new headmistress of Constance Billard banned cell phones from the school campus. The camera focuses on the front doors of the school where Miss Queller is confiscating cell phones before the students walk into the building.

Miss Queller: New School policy. There will be no cell phone usage during school hours. Every morning before you enter the building you will check your phones.

Blair: Is this a joke?

Penelope: I feel nauseous.

Hazel: Pinch me. I’m in my own worst nightmare. [1]

Blair, and the other students are shocked. They are stripped of their own power. The power to have information about someone else at his or her disposal. Without their technology, they feel naked.

…..While blogging is assumed to be an anti-social activity for young nerdy boys and girls, Gossip Girl has made it trendy and we, as college students, can relate to it. First, I would like to note that the author of the series predicted this mass use of technology – cellular phones and the Internet – well before it became popular in the United States. This fictional television show compares to the real-life use of these technologies almost identically. We use online networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook to see what our peers are doing, whom they are dating, and where they are going on weekends. We gossip about our peers on anonymous forums such as CollegeACB and JuicyCampus. We text and picture message on the Blue Bus, in class, and even in our sleep. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit organization that gathers data regarding youth usage of technology, more than 75% of teenagers in America own a cell phone, 93% use the Internet, and 54% read blogs. [2] Though Gossip Girl is a made-up story about made-up people, it is clearly a representation of the techno-world we live in and identify with today.