Can you tell the difference.......

When I was younger I used to live a lie. I lied to everyone around me except for those who knew me best. I mostly lied to people at school. I wanted to sound more interesting than I was, and sometimes would create fantastic stories. Some of the kids I knew in school thought I was in a serious relationship with a much older baseball player, because at the time, that's the sort of life I wished I'd had. Well my lies did catch up with me. I realized I was telling different people different lies, and figured eventually those lies would be found out, although I don't recall if they ever were, I don't think people were as interested as I thought they were. Anyways, I haven't lied in years now. I mean maybe the occasional fib or something, but for the most part I am what I say I am. I no longer try to make myself sound more interesting, because I'm interesting enough as I am, and to be honest, nobody else is really all that interested in hearing my fairy tales. If someone else on here is lying, well, it depends on the story. I think if it were something completely fantastic, like if you tried to tell me you were actually Britney Spears, yeah, I wouldn't believe that for a second. But you really can't tell, and why would it matter? I don't care if you're 100 or 15, I'm not THAT interested in your personal life, so there's no reason to try to lie about it. Know what I mean?

People lie on the internet because their reality is harsh to face and admit, its good to make people believe that we have a life different than the one we do. :)

I can not tell the difference right away. However, those people who are here for over 1 year usually give themselves away by changing their cover story. I admit to being surprised at who some of the phonies turned out to be. No, I won't discuss who I think is not real, they would just deny it. As for myself, my name is easy to obtain from my website, and I am who I say.

This is actually more of a complicated subject than it first appears. For example, I'm sure that many people here perceive ME as being slightly crazed and very funny. I'm not crazy in any way, and offline I'm not nearly as funny. Does that mean I am portraying myself as someone I'm not? No. I'm a writer, and it comes easily to me to write the way I do. It's a side of me that comes out more in the written word than the spoken word. We are many faceted as people. An arena like mylot brings out a facet of me that 'real life' doesn't do as easily. Other places on the net where I write, you wouldn't even know it was me. But those are places where my 'playful' side are not the purpose of those sites to bring out. Again does that make me dishonest in what I write? Again no. It is just another side of my personality, my interests or my beliefs. To be pigeonholed as this or that kind of person is confining and actually dishonest on the part of the pigeonholer. But no matter what I write or where, I believe there is a strong vein of the core person I am that always comes through and that's what 'readers' of our words need to see in order to keep them from jumping to erroneous conclusions of our honesty or worth.

Hey there Barb42 I am one of those people who believes everybody on here is telling me as it is. I too do not lie about my age or who I am, what you read is what you get with me. I am too old to try and keep up pretenses or to play any games. I just don't have it in me to be dishonest like some people. I think a lot of my friends on here would be shocked if they heard that really I was an 18 year old guy from Australia!!!

Hey Barb, When you get to be as old as I am you do not lie. do you know why? It is because we would not remember the lies LOL. I am honest and tell the truth - not just because I try so hard to walk the talk as a committed Christian. Some people have questioned my posts but all these things that I have posted to do with my family are true. I have led a very odd and life as an adult in a third world country. to qualify that I should have said - in the bush, in a third world country. I came from college in London to growing bananas in the Caribbean and living on an isolated farm behind God's back. I could never be false about myself. Here I am girl. Warts and all. Blessings

No, I can't tell and if people are like me they have many different facets to their personality and so we can be different people sometimes. Of course we are who we are but knowing another utterly and completely is difficult in real life so on the Net, I think it might be really hard. Then again, I think if a person has a stable healthy life and lifestyle they might be easier to get to know. So, while I agree that some people role play, I don't necessarily think they are being dishonest and trying to mislead people. I also think there are some who do just that. I've also seen people who claim to be good and kind and loving attack other members with amazing ferociousness. They are easy to pick....lol... and be wary of.

On the internet it is hard to tell if someone is genuinely being themselves or acting to be someone else. It is hard to determine who is who and what their personality it really like unless you met them in person. I am like you and I don't really lie. I tend to not tell certain things, for the fact that it is the internet. But I could never lie.

with people on the net, you don't give too much information nor do i get close them just for that reason. but there is some i do chat or email with on a regualr bases, that i have known for years. but it's still like ok well. but when it comes to people in person i've learn to read people. so i often i can figure it they are a big act, or lying about things

I don't like lying much, and I would usually try not to. Only time when I would actually "play-act" is when I'm upset about something and try to be cheerful and not let other people notice. But then it's because I'm having my own problems and want to deal with it myself, that's why I would do that. Otherwise I try to be as honest as possible, I find that if you tell too many lies you'll get yourself caught up in a web and therefore won't know what to do in the end when you're found out. And that doesn't exactly appeal to me as a very interesting way to go. I don't lie about my age, I'm still in high school and don't mind people knowing that (heck, it's even on my blog!), but as for personal life details, I usually wouldn't spill that much on the Internet, I still like to keep some things private for real life. But as for actually telling the difference in someone else, no, I can't. I'm highly gullible and am prone to believing what I read/see (with the exception of what I hear from this one friend who's habit is to tell outrageous lies), so I can't make judgments until I get to know a person really well.

we cant really tell the difference. in internet someone might want to have the image of what he really wants him to be but its the other way around. but sometimes there are people who use the internet to express themselves and gain friends and learn from others. it really depends on the intention of that person.

the better you know someone, the easier for you to tell if he is lying. It is very hard to tell if someone's lying here on mylot. lying is tiring, once you make a lie, you will have to make more lies to cover it. I don't lying unless it is very necessary.

i must admit during my younger years in the internet i did hide my true self but later on as the years passed by and i get older i tend to be more realistic on dealing with myself as well people in the internet but sometimes no matter how sensitive you are to know whether the person you are dealing with is telling the truth or not still it boils down to how much you trust the person. lying has his pros and cons i must say. when you hide your true identity the person tends to get more interested to know you better because of the falls perception you present to that person but when you decide to come out in the open, that's when things changed, the person tend to despise you already and you should face the consequence you made for doing such act.