I wasn’t sure what to write about
this week, so I just started thinking about lies. I remember as a kid, I was a
compulsive liar, it’s actually a little worrisome when I look back on it. And I
would tell a lot of the lies to my parents. I wonder if they ever sat down and
said “What the fuck do we do with this kid?” But don’t worry, I grew out of it,
I actually find it hard to lie now. But I think there is something about it
that people enjoy. Robert Feldman of the University of Massachusetts found that
people will tell two to three lies in a ten minute conversation. That’s like
100 lies a day, if you’re quiet. That’s what I should’ve given up for lent,
just to see if I could do it. So what are we lying about all day? Sure, a
majority of them are white lies, but still. I’m sure some of them are to not
hurt people feelings, like no, that’s not a grandma sweater. Maybe others make
us look cool, like, yeah I chugged 14 beers last night. I think sometimes a lot
of the times we just get lazy, saying yes it’s my shirt is easier than
explaining it’s your cousins friends sister’s who left it at your house after a
family party. I don’t really count these as bad lies, because they don’t hurt
anyone, or really even affect anyone. So I’m still clueless. I don’t know why I
loved lying as a kid, and I don’t know why we lie so much day-to-day. I thought
by the end of my post I would have reached a conclusion about something, but I’ve
got nothing. Maybe this is just my shitty first draft, but if you guys have any
idea, let me know.
Although the results of the study seem shocking at first I think they make total sense. Think about all the jokes we make in a single day. Many of those are probably lies. They are lies with a purpose, though. They intend to make someone laugh or lighten someone's day. So maybe it is good that we are all compulsive liars. Would the world be worse off without our lying? It would be better off without some of the lies people tell, but it would certainly be worse off without other lies. I guess we just have to search through all the lies and bullshit we hear every day and figure out what is worth being said and what is not.
ReplyDeleteI think that your comments about lies are interesting. It's hard to determine exactly why we tell lies. Sometimes as Dan said, it's just for fun. If you embellish the truth a little bit, that might be the difference between a stupid joke and really making someone laugh. Other times, the lie will be stupid, and no one will think it's funny. I think that at the end of the day, lies are just another device for communication, and they have their ups and downs just like the rest.
ReplyDeleteWow that was an amazing perspective! But I am actually not surprised at the amount of lies a person tells in a day. As i mentioned in my post, our society is in a way built on lies. The market and, as someone else mentioned, our social media continue to lie to us in order for their business to run. It is also very true about people lying about things like "chugging 14 beers". But hey, how will i ever know if their lying or not.
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