Letters to the Editor
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"Which is worse: To be boring or catty?"
You don't actually have to be either.
I have spent years on both sides of the gossip grapevine. When I was younger, I was the one being talked about, teased, or otherwise tortured in that malicious, catty way that girls seem to have mastered. Then I changed school districts and found myself suddenly in the "cool" group; I turned the tables and began talking about other people like it was my job, and this continued pretty much up until the day I graduated high school.
I've since graduated from college and consider myself to have grown up quite a bit (although clearly I've still got many years ahead of me), and I honestly attribute that to my ability to interact with people, about people, in neither a catty nor a boring way, a skill I discovered and cultivated in my college years.
People are going to do things that you're going to want to talk about. It happens. But don't share information just because it's juicy. If you're telling people something just because you feel like a million people should know, you're doing it for the wrong reason. If you're betraying a confidence, or sharing something in a way that would make the person you're talking about extremely hurt or upset, then you're doing it wrong.
But jeez, if one of your friends is talking about someone mis-billing her, then feel free to bring up your friend and her Netflix problem as proof that you've seen these things happen too. Just don't say it in a way that implies that the friend you're talking about is an idiot for what happened to her-- that's what makes gossip catty--your own implied (or even outright acknowledged) judgment on the person you're talking about.