Understanding the Ways We Lie Everyday

Nowadays, lying has become a natural thing most people are doing, for example, breathing, we do it without even thinking about it. Lying has a lot of meanings; depending on the people it might mean something different from your definition. In the article “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, she gives the reader a definition from Webster, “a false statement or action…or anything that gives or is meant to give a false impression.” While the online article, “The Business of Lying” by Williams, Kaylene C; Hernandez, Edward H; Petrosky, Alfred R; and Page, Robert A, they give the reader five definitions. In my opinion, lying means when you do not tell someone the whole truth. In Ericsson’s article, she explains to the reader that to some people not telling the whole truth is considered lying which I do not agree with.

Ericsson uses the Webster definition of lying to get to the point to the person reading the article that there is not only one way to lie but many ways to lie. The Webster definition is “a false statement or action…or anything meant to give a false impression.” Some examples of the way people lie that she mentioned are a white lie, facades, ignoring the facts, deflecting, omission, etc. She only talks about nine ways people lie but, in the end, she says that the listed are only some ways because there are more. In her article, she wrote she believes that lying is a bad thing even though people do it more than we think.

The online article, “The Business of Lying,” defines lying in a simple definition that everyone can understand. Their five definitions are “false representations, knowledge or belief as to its falsity, intent to induce the other party to lie on the representation, justifiable reliance by the injured party, and damage or injury to the innocent party.” Over the years, not only people in the everyday world but even workers tend to lie. This has happened because now in days people have to work longer and harder.

The reason we lie almost every day of our lives is for many reasons but in reality, you just cannot live without lies even if you try. This experiment was done for a week by Stephanie Ericsson and it sounded like her life turned upside down. Some of the consequences of her week are that her bank charged $60 in overdraft fees and her client fires Ericsson for telling her she did not feel like being on time. When I first read this part, I did not realize that not lying in your life could mess up your life so bad that it makes you a good life into a bad one. No one would have ever thought that telling the truth could ruin your life since it has always been thought to be good.

In the online article “The Business of Lying,” it gives the reader about twelve reasons why people would ever lie in their life. “People will lie because they like to mislead, gain an advantage over an opponent, to get a higher social status, to get what they want.” I think that for whatever reason someone might lie for they just cannot help it. Even though most people believe that lying is a bad thing because you will not be the only one getting hurt. When the person who is lying, realizes that they are not the only ones getting hurt, then they will still not stop lying because they are just used to it. No matter how much a person tries to always tell the truth and to not tell a lie they just cannot do it. By telling a lot of lies, a person will most likely tell a lie when having a conversation rather than trying to tell the truth.