The end of lying
The movie The Invention of Lying takes place in an alternate reality where no one has ever lied. The people in this movie are no more ethical than people in real life, but concept of not telling the truth is beyond all of them. When unsuccessful writer Mark Bellison (played by Ricky Gervais, who also wrote and directed) inexplicably discovers his ability to lie, the whole world believes whatever he says.
We live in a world full of Mark Bellisons. We’re generally nice and caring people who are able to lie — and most of us do. That may all be changing now.
For the hundreds of millions of us who’s friends are mostly on Facebook, we know that certain kinds of (mostly white) lies are dead. If you want to skip one party so you can attend another, you can’t say you’re not feeling well to your friend hosting the lame party anymore. She’ll see you tagged in photos someone else took of you with a cameraphone the next day before you have a chance to untag yourself.
Thinking of telling someone you’re a few years older or younger than you really are? A quick look at your profile on Facebook or LinkedIn will let people know what year you graduated from college. You’ll have a lot to explain.
About to tell someone you’re single when you’re not? Just wait till you get a flirtatious wall post the next day.
Trying to skip work by calling in sick? You’d better hope your friend asks you before he checks into fourSquare at the baseball game mentioning you’re with him.
The end of lies like these will change life a little for most (imagine saying “I’m skipping your party because I just got invited to a better one”) and a lot for some (think of the stories we hear every couple of years about people amazingly maintaining two families who are unaware of each other). But will the web decrease the potential for the type of lies that hurt many people such as Madoff’s Ponzi scheme or Canopy Financial’s fake financial results?
I’m pretty sure Ricky Gervais could have as much fun exploring the bursting of lies going on all around us as he did imagining the invention of lying.
