Blog #9: Deceptions

Hello! This is Kaori Shimamoto!

Today I would like to introduce to you one of the TED lecture about lies. The speaker, Jeff Hancock, studies how people interact through the use of text messages, e-mails, and media blips. This lecture was taken place on September 13, 2012 at Winnipeg, Canada.

Here's the link of his speech:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_hancock_3_types_of_digital_lies.html

This lecture caught my attention since I have recently changed my phone to a "smart" phone and have been using the free online chatting application,"Line", to communicate with friends. You look around in the train and you see almost everybody clicking (or should I say, "touching") on their phones, either texting or using the internet. Almost every person in the world use this new technology device to interact with friends. Though this, Hancock analysis how much people can be deceptive in their daily life. The new invention of blogs, chat, and text messages has changed the way people lie. He states that people lie every now and then, and especially on the internet. New types of deception has been developed and Hancock introduces three types of lies; Butlers, sock puppets, and the chinese water army. He uses the example of Facebook profiles and how some of the information's like height and age are somewhat changed to look good.

The interesting part of this lecture was how much communication has changed and how everybody's deceptive comments can be seen throughout the world. We can see who we are by looking back at the massive records we have left. As Hancock has said, from small ones to big ones, people lie. I, myself will admit that I have lied before in my 19 years of life. While texting, your friend might say "I have things to do, gotta go". When you hear this it can be a lie. I suspect it to be untrue because I sometimes use this phrase because I am bored and want to do something else. Small lies wouldn't hurt much, but lies said on the internet can be very dangerous. It is a good thing for people like Hancock who studies peoples deceptive comments but there is never a benefit in lies.

Internet has become a great tool for us, but it has also become the most unreliable source. This lecture has made me rethink about the use of the internet and the comments I make. Hancock made a great point about the relationship between the technological development and human deception. However, his theme about lies were not very clear of how dangerous it can be. He just gave examples of the lies made by his experiment. However, this speech can be recommended to those who are interested in human communication and how they use the newly technology developed in recent years.