The uncomfortable truth: You spend 52 minutes a day gossiping (Yes, you do)
Be honest, do you like gossip? You might instantly recoil, thinking, “No way! I’m not the type of person who gossips.” I understand your pride, but I am willing to bet you are living in denial. It appears humans are genetically programmed to spend time on something we know we should feel ashamed of, yet simply cannot stop: Gossiping.
The academic definition of gossip is simply talking about someone who isn’t present—and it’s not always negative. However, a UC Riverside study revealed that negative gossip was twice as prevalent as positive gossip. It seems our collective conscience was right to feel a little guilty about it after all. Still, the big takeaway? That same study suggests we spend an average of 52 minutes a day gossiping. Yes, nearly an hour every single day.
Why do we dedicate our limited time to this? Research from the University of Michigan found that gossiping actually increases levels of progesterone. This substance is a known “feel-good” hormone that plays a role in fostering social bonding and trust. As progesterone is often referred to as a “female hormone” due to its critical role in the female body, this might elegantly explain why women—traditionally the keepers of social cohesion—were found to gossip more than men. We are biologically designed to feel good when we share information.
From ancient survival to modern office talk: Why gossip is in our DNA
But why are we designed to feel such pleasure—releasing progesterone—just by talking about others? I found the answer in Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, where he asserts that “our language evolved as a variant of gossip.” For our ancestors, gossiping was the original “social audit system”—a vital tool to figure out who was a friend and who was a dangerous free-rider. In the harsh environments of the past, those who excelled at this social exchange were the ones who survived and passed on their genes. We are the descendants of those master gossipers, and our DNA still rewards us for it today.
You don’t have to be ashamed of it. You’re not being nosy; you’re being strategically human. In fact, please feel free to go ahead and gossip about me to as many people as possible (as long as the references are positive, of course). After all, your office Slack channel is just a high-tech version of a 50,000-year-old campfire.
The post-COVID thirst: Why online chat fails to satisfy our genetic need
Why does this matter now? Because while we’ve spent the last few years mastering Zoom and Teams, we’ve realized a hard truth: digital tools cannot satisfy this deep, genetic need for unfiltered connection.
Granted, the guilty pleasure of attending a global board meeting in a formal shirt while wearing pajama bottoms is hard to give up. But we are not designed to live without the subtle cues, the body language, and the spontaneous laughter of physical interaction. During the COVID years, I realized how much I missed the raw energy of face-to-face business. Many of you must feel the same way—a genuine hunger for the real Japan, beyond the screen.
Hokkaido in June: Where to satisfy your thirst for real connection
If you are looking to satisfy that thirst for connection, I have a recommendation from my home: Asahikawa Design Week (ADW), held every June in Hokkaido. While the rest of Japan suffers through the humidity of the rainy season, Hokkaido in June is a paradise of dry, crisp air. It is the perfect stage to engage in the “good kind” of gossip—sharing ideas and passions with creators over great food.
The ultimate subject: Give them something elite to talk about
If we are biologically destined to spend 52 minutes a day talking about others, we might as well give people a subject worth the breath. Why settle for mundane office scandals when you can offer your guests a physicalization of a digital goddess?
The Hatsune Miku Art Chair is the ultimate social catalyst. It bridges the gap between virtual obsession and Hokkaido’s tactile reality. It’s not just a chair; it’s a high-end conversation piece that defines who you are in the social audit of your peers.
I invite you to click the banner below to explore our special website. Step inside the world of this “digital goddess” and see for yourself the masterpiece that will give your guests something truly elite to gossip about.—— The Hatsune Miku Art Chair.
Photo credit: Image by drobotdean on Freepik / https://meetup.furniture/
Shungo Ijima
Global Connector | Reformed Bureaucrat | Professional Over-Thinker
After years of navigating the rigid hallways of Japan’s Ministry of Finance and surviving an MBA, he made a life-changing realization: spreadsheets are soulless, and wood has much better stories to tell.
Currently an Executive at CondeHouse, he travels the world decoding the “hidden DNA” of Japanese culture—though, in his travels, he’s becoming increasingly more skilled at decoding how to find the cheapest hotels than actual cultural mysteries.
He has a peculiar talent for finding deep philosophical meaning in things most people ignore as meaningless (and to be fair, they are often actually meaningless). He doesn’t just sell furniture; he’s on a mission to explain Japan to the world, one intellectually over-analyzed observation at a time. He writes for the curious, the skeptical, and anyone who suspects that a chair might actually be a manifesto in disguise.
Follow his journey as he bridges the gap between high-finance logic and the chaotic art of living!