I think of “gossip” as idle or malicious talk about others’ lives.
Like whether I’ve heard that some famous celebrity got arrested, is gossip. Nobody needs to know but everybody is fascinated by it and want’s to know all the details. Or someone else got angry and told somebody off and we like to see that showdown.
Or it could be more neutral but still idle, like a famous celebrity wore a certain dress like why should anybody care except those who stand to gain or lose from our becoming interested in such thing.
If I say a government official has done terrible things that are Relevant To Us All, and have reasonable suspicion it might be true, that may or may not be “gossip” depending on whether I intend to destroy the person rather than just inform others. I’m not sure I could describe a way to make the distinction, so it’s more about my internal state.
Personally I’m interested for some silly reason in personal details that will never matter to me, and about people I’ll never know. If I see someone in public whose appearance or behavior captures my attention, I feel a compulsion to know “what is the story here” like just by being in a certain store in this day, suddenly they owe some stranger an explanation for why they are how they are. Like yes, I’m curious how that person lost his arm, or maybe he was born that way. Or why would a person who looks like that be there right now? This compulsion is closely related to a tendency to speak of silly things that Don’t Matter to Anyone, except Enquiring Minds.
“Enquiring Minds” was an advertising slogan for the National Enquirer, one of many “celbrity gossip magazines” which makes huge amounts of money exploiting how people are absorbed addictively to following others’ lives.
I like what Trident H said about if you start getting feelings about this information and a desire to tear someone down – especially by repeating it but even by craving to know more – that could be a signal you are “codependent” on whatever it is. When your feelings depend on whether you know others’ stuff, or knowing it that it goes a certain way like "I can’t believe she did/didn’t end up in jail over that – that is just wrong and is what is wrong with this country, etc. … " then you know you have handed over your own peace, to something in the world that neither cares for you nor even knows you, and that you cannot control.
Some people like to think they have no control over their feelings, because there is such a pervasive “learned helplessness” when it comes to states of mind – which of course means that we need professionals to fix us. So for people with Big Money, they like to take control of others’ feelings and by becoming enmeshed in gossip we can give them inroads and we become slaves to them.