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Technological Lies
On a lazy Saturday afternoon in the middle of October, I attended a single public lecture from the “Lying: The Making of the World” series, in the Memorial Union, at Arizona State University, on the topic of Lying and Technology. Walking into the vast room I was surprised that there were only 20 to 30 members in attendance, and they were all much older than I was. Instantly, I was overwhelmed with the extensively high level of diction the orators were using to discuss simple topics such as Facebook, blogs, or other forms of social media that are so simple and familiar to me. One of the major issues discussed was the idea of how anyone can create any sort of persona they desire on the web. Through the Internet, people have the chance to achieve the biggest desire; the ability to belong. In one situation discussed, a forty-year-old male, with a beard, had an entire blog developed saying he was a lesbian Arabic woman named Amenia. His whole intention in doing this, was being able to get his opinions out to the world, without being judged by his race and, by using the point of view of a girl, he felt he could get his point across better. America fell in love with his columns he posted, until he faked his own kidnapping, in order to quit the blog, because he was over worked and wanted away from the attention he was now addicted to. Instantly, Facebook pages were made concerning Amenia and the hashtag #freeamenia was seen everywhere, until forensic scientists were able to figure out Amenia’s true self. A reporter joked that the, “lesbian we care about most in the world is a dude.” Ultimately, this new generation revolved around the use of the Internet has opened up a completely new opportunity for lying to emerge. Through the use of this resource, anyone can become someone new or find a way to express their thoughts without feeling judged. This technology provides distance which makes lying easier, because people are able to manipulate facts and other perimeters that otherwise would be difficult to fake in face-to-face connections. The Internet is making it extremely challenging to be authentic and instead we are, “webbed to inherit lies,” and cannot change what is emerging in today’s society.
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