Tea, Jessica Lisena

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.

The word “tea” is important in order to understand the experiences of young people because youth are engaging with each other mostly online by “creating anonymous Instagram accounts” to spread gossip about people they know which is problematic (Jargon, 2021). I chose the word “tea” because it is importantly related to youth’s health and well-being as it evidently demonstrates that while this tea/gossip can be spread amongst youth in person, a lot of this is happening online. As a result, it is leading to more cyberbullying which “…can result in fights, social rejection and self harm” amongst youth (Jargon, 2021). Additionally, the word “tea” represents an issue that is important to the study of adolescence and health because it is concerning that youth are creating social media accounts designated to gossiping called “tea accounts” and spreading rumours about their classmates (Jargon, 2021). Evidently, the use of spreading tea/gossip to others is harmful when looking at how casually the way youth are spreading gossip about others online especially through the way that “tea” spilling is used as a normal occurrence that has embedded itself into teen culture through social media. I think this is an important word that demonstrates the experiences of young people because it has become a part of youth’s actions as a way to interact with their peers. Consequently, this trend amongst youth participating in “spilling tea” is important to understand more about youth’s health and well-being because it has become very problematic, and it is concerning because it has allowed more cyberbullying to occur amongst youth. Furthermore, this word is important to the study of adolescence and health because it allows us to understand how problematic the popularity of “tea spilling” has become amongst youth, and how it is becoming detrimental to youth’s mental health and the relationship they have with their peers. To read more about this perspective on the word “tea” and its relation to youth’s harmful online engagement with social media and cyberbullying, you can access the article by Julie Jargon here.

References

Caivano, O., Leduc, K., & Talwar, V. (2020). When is gossiping wrong? The influence of valence and relationships on children’s moral evaluations of gossip. British Journal of

Developmental Psychology, 38(2), 219-238. https://doiorg.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1111/bjdp.12319. Jargon, J. (2021, December 18). ‘Spilling the Tea,’ the Cyberbullying Tactic Plaguing Schools,

Parents and Students. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/spilling-the-teathe-cyberbullying-tactic-plaguing-schools-parents-and-students-11639836002. Let’s Talk ‘Tea.’ (2017). Merriam-Webster: Words We’re Watching. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/tea-slang-meaning-origin. McNealy, J., & Mullis, M. D. (2019). Tea and turbulence: Communication privacy management theory and online celebrity gossip forums. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, 110-118. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.029.