Reader question: What's "small talk" exactly?

My comments:

Small talk is gossip, chitchat, unimportant chatter, small being the significant adjective pointing to its, well, insignificance.

In terms of the media, all the gossip columns are small talk. They shouldn't be in newspapers but they are, and on television also, as well as over the radio and the Internet. Take gossips about celebrities, for example. Does it really matter if that famous model Loulou (never mind who she is – I'm making it up) frolics with her boyfriend in the sea half-clad in a bikini? I mean, even if "half-clad in a bikini" is a grammatically sound description, why should the public be told about it? Why shouldn't we be told instead more of the important issues such as what all the politicians are saying? Or business scandals, for that matter, or traffic accidents, coal mine explosions or any other natural calamity or bad news.

Well, you got me there. I admit pictures of a half-naked – can I say naked? – Loulou on the beach would beat, say, ranting politicians all day, such being the current state of affairs we're in. I too realize that sometimes small talk is the best talk anywhere in the newspaper, on television and over the radio. So therefore, let's gossip a bit about "small talk" with examples culled from the Internet.

1. from itpub.net:

Small Talk: Who, What, Where, When, Why?

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