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charliesmumI was thinking about that woman who made up a fake internet persona, and it made me start to ruminate on the nature of lying, and hoaxes, and what the difference is.
When I was in high school - a freshman, my boyfriend (who was a senior! woo!) took me to see this movie called "If You Could See What I Hear". Great movie, I recommend it. Okay, maybe not 'great', but amusing. Anyway...after the movie we went to this restaurant in a hotel for some dessert, and for whatever reason, we decided to pretend that I was blind. I thought it would be an interesting experiment in human behavior, not to mention as an acting exercise, and I was 14. So we did, and everyone totally bought it. The waitress gave a menu only to my boyfriend, acted like I couldn't hear her "and what does she want" and so on. It was very interesting. Was I lying? Yes. Was it immoral? I don't really think so. I wasn't trying to con anyone out of anything, but it was still a lie. Is what I did different than what 'Rita' did? Yes, but on some level I was probably doing what she did - making myself a little more special, a little more interesting. At any rate, it was kind of fun, being someone different for awhile.
I do think humans are basically trusting. It's our greatest strength and our biggest flaw, which is why people got so upset at "Rita" because they trusted her to be the person she said she was, and she wasn't. And it's harder on the 'net - the same things that make it so much fun also make it kind of scary - you think you know the people you are 'speaking' with, but you have to go on trust. On faith that they are who they say they are.
I'll raise my hand to my share of lying - lying about homework, about doing things I should have done but didn't, and vice versa, about the check being in the mail; but I don't lie about the big things.
I certainly don't lie about who I am on this blog. (why would I make up this life?) If I did I'd probably make my self much younger and British. But that would take work to maintain that kind of lie (I'd have to research where I 'lived', figure out younger people slang, and what they like to do, etc.) and I'm too lazy. So I am who I say I am, a rapidly approaching middle-aged woman with a 7 year old boy, a tenuous job and a desire to be a 'real' writer someday.
The community![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fake_lj_deaths is weird. It's weird that there needs to be a community to debunk fake deaths of all things.
This story is very interesting, and has describes Live Journal and its denizens in such a way that I think I might be offended if it weren't probably really true.
Today the Dalai Lama says If we each selfishly pursue only what we believe to be in our own interest, without caring about the needs of others, we not only end up harming others but also ourselves.
When I was in high school - a freshman, my boyfriend (who was a senior! woo!) took me to see this movie called "If You Could See What I Hear". Great movie, I recommend it. Okay, maybe not 'great', but amusing. Anyway...after the movie we went to this restaurant in a hotel for some dessert, and for whatever reason, we decided to pretend that I was blind. I thought it would be an interesting experiment in human behavior, not to mention as an acting exercise, and I was 14. So we did, and everyone totally bought it. The waitress gave a menu only to my boyfriend, acted like I couldn't hear her "and what does she want" and so on. It was very interesting. Was I lying? Yes. Was it immoral? I don't really think so. I wasn't trying to con anyone out of anything, but it was still a lie. Is what I did different than what 'Rita' did? Yes, but on some level I was probably doing what she did - making myself a little more special, a little more interesting. At any rate, it was kind of fun, being someone different for awhile.
I do think humans are basically trusting. It's our greatest strength and our biggest flaw, which is why people got so upset at "Rita" because they trusted her to be the person she said she was, and she wasn't. And it's harder on the 'net - the same things that make it so much fun also make it kind of scary - you think you know the people you are 'speaking' with, but you have to go on trust. On faith that they are who they say they are.
I'll raise my hand to my share of lying - lying about homework, about doing things I should have done but didn't, and vice versa, about the check being in the mail; but I don't lie about the big things.
I certainly don't lie about who I am on this blog. (why would I make up this life?) If I did I'd probably make my self much younger and British. But that would take work to maintain that kind of lie (I'd have to research where I 'lived', figure out younger people slang, and what they like to do, etc.) and I'm too lazy. So I am who I say I am, a rapidly approaching middle-aged woman with a 7 year old boy, a tenuous job and a desire to be a 'real' writer someday.
The community
fake_lj_deaths is weird. It's weird that there needs to be a community to debunk fake deaths of all things.This story is very interesting, and has describes Live Journal and its denizens in such a way that I think I might be offended if it weren't probably really true.
Today the Dalai Lama says If we each selfishly pursue only what we believe to be in our own interest, without caring about the needs of others, we not only end up harming others but also ourselves.