Schadenfreude is joy in the misery of others. It’s the quintessential motivation for gossip. How much media content today is simply gossip disguised as “news?” The trade-off of gossip is that at the cost of weakening community, it creates and strengthens bonds in cliques and clusters.
My sense is that as communities grow, gossip becomes more marginalized as available but not a significant distraction to the business of positive engagement.