Lying is one of those things that we, as a society, have decided is immoral. Nobody likes being deceived or mislead, but it still happens all the time. Going to a party when you tell your parents you are just hanging out with a friend or two or telling them you don’t have homework when you have two tests and a paper due, but you just want to watch T.V. Highschoolers tend to lie when they want to get away from the rigors of school and home life. They just want to relax and have fun, but in a way that their parents would disapprove of - and so they lie. I personally don’t have a problem with this type of lying. But I do think that priorities need to be set by highschoolers to do their work before they go off and party - but that’s another story.
I like to think that I can lie when I need to. But the truth is, I don’t really have a need to lie. I don’t like going to parties and especially now, in my last semester of highschool, I don’t have work I need to get done before I can do whatever I want. Even if I did want to go to a party, though, I am lucky enough to have parents that are okay with that as long as I don’t do anything stupid.
There are other types of lying too. You lie when you want to spare someone’s feelings or maybe when you want to impress someone. These are the types of lies that I respect less, especially the latter kind. It is a personal belief of mine that you should be honest about yourself to other people. Even when the truth is hurtful to someone else, it’s probably best, in the end, to tell the truth. Now, if the topic never comes up around another person, then I would say it’s fine not to tell them. But that’s more for the benefit of the person with the hurtful truth. People generally don’t want to hurt another person’s feelings, and will want to put it off as much as possible, and I am certainly no exception to that. But there comes a time and a place in which the truth must come out, or else things can get uncomfortable for both parties involved.
Lying, in some ways, is really just acting. You want to make someone believe in something that isn’t true. But unlike acting, lying is the real world. You can hurt people with it or you can spare someone with it. Either way, it’s probably best to be good at it.
I liked the aspects of lying you discuss in this essay. You did a good job going in depth about what lying means for people -- especially people in high school . I think you should add more aspects of reflection and personal anecdotes of how lying has affected you personally. You did a really good job talking about lying as a concept, but I think you should add more about you.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Molly. You do a nice job analyzing what lying means to you and the different kinds of lies that you have encountered. But, I think you could also cut down a little on this and instead, try to supplement these lies with stories that you can reflect on. It's very difficult, especially with lies, to be vulnerable. I think that an example though of a personal story could make this essay a lot stronger. For instance, when you say "People generally don’t want to hurt another person’s feelings, and will want to put it off as much as possible, and I am certainly no exception to that", this would be a good place to insert some personal narration.
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