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Tea Jessica Lisena The word “tea” is a term that refers to the sharing of information in relation to sharing or spreading gossip with others (McNealy & Mullis, 2019, p. 110). However, while the term “tea” has now been heavily adopted as a term used in the vocabulary of teens, it has its origins from black drag culture (Merriam-Webster, 2017). The word “tea” is used in a phrase such as “spill the tea” which is a way to let people know that you want to hear gossip or encourage someone to gossip (Merriam-Webster, 2017). Additionally, Jasmine McNealy and Michaela Devyn Mullis (2019) stated that “Gossip – tea – can be sipped (accepted)…or spilled (shared) on gossip-driven social media sites (p. 110). This tea/gossip can be about people or things you know about. However, it can also be about gossip that involves celebrity drama and their private lives that is talked about in person, but more popularly online (McNealy & Mullis, 2019, p. 110). While the word “tea” or phrase “spilling the tea” has gained a lot of popularity amongst youth especially online, it is important to the study of adolescence and health because promoting gossiping can be very harmful to youth and those gossiped about. According to Caivano et al. (2020), “one study demonstrated that…sharing gossip about a friend decreased one’s self-esteem” (p. 222). Additionally, youth found it more acceptable to hear gossip about someone they are not friends with rather “than hear a friend being gossiped about by a classmate” (Caivano et al., 2020, p. 231). Due to this, it is evident that the popularity of promoting gossiping/spilling tea can be detrimental to youth’s health because it will negatively impact their mental health if gossip is spread about them, and it can cause issues for them when they hear their friends being gossiped about by others. For more information on this issue of understanding youth’s perception of gossip, it can be found by further reading the Caivano et al. (2020) article.
