#4 - Biking across Korea and Japanese Flute Lessons

I decided to do option #1, telling a friend two travel experiences over rich and lean media with one of them being a lie. I met up with So Young, who is also taking this class, and we decided to exchange stories. So, I started first on chat.

I told So Young over AIM that I went to California Disney Land when I was 14 with my Mom and Dad to meet my Uncle and Aunt who are obsessed with all things Mickey Mouse. I told her that my Uncle Collects Disney character pins, so we spent most of our time in little shops looking for the pins and trying to find all the really rare ones. A marketing tactic that Disney has is that all of the park staff where pins on their staff lanyards, and they have to trade with you if you ask. So, my brother and I wondered around the park getting the best pins to sell on ebay.

My second story I told over the phone. I told So Yong that when I was 16 I was a Rotary Exchange Student to Japan. When I got there, my host family was really nice and they signed me up for traditional Japanese flute and drum lessons. The problem was, I couldnt really speak or understand much Japanese, so when I got there I couldnt really follow the instructions of the class. So, the teacher told me to come back the next week at a different time. When I came back the next week, I realized everyone in my class were 4-6 year olds! They had moved me to the little kid class because I was so incompetent. So, in our year end performance, I got to perform on stage with a bunch of little kids in front of a whole crowd of people. It was a little embarrassing.

So which one was a lie? The lie was the Disney land one. In fact, I did go to Japan and play flute and drums with little kids.

So, did So Young find out? She said she didn't know which one was a lie at first, but after I told her it was the Disney one she said that she thought it might be because I kept saying "So... yeah..." a whole bunch. Also, I consciously made the decision to lie over AIM because I didnt want to have to try to make my self seem reasonable over the phone when she might be able to detect my voice wavering.

So Young also told me two stories as well. She told me a story over AIM that was about her and a friend bike riding from Pusan to Seoul in South Korea. I didnt know how far that was, so I asked, and she said about 5 hours by car! She said it took her and her friend a week to do it and they stayed in little country inns. I thought this story was the lie because I knew So Young from before this class, and I didnt know thats she was in to bike riding at all. Plus, I think that you would have to be pretty in to bike riding to do a week long trip across South Korea.


So Young and I both chose to lie over AIM, interestingly enough. This correlates well to Social Distance Theory. Social Distance Theory says that we will pick the leanest media in which to lie because lying through richer media is perceived as increasingly uncomfortable and difficult. I definitely chose AIM over the phone because I knew that I would have more to hide over the phone, such as my voice and the way that I would have had to think up a story on the phone. Another thing that I think supports the Social Distance Theory is that on AIM it is acceptable to have long pauses in your chat because maybe you were busy or talking to someone else. One could use this time to formulate a story if needed. However, on the phone, long pauses are usually seen as strange, so people would usually question you more about them, and become suspicious.

I think some thing we have to think about though, is how lying usually occurs online. I dont think usually if we are going to be lying to a close friend (like I did) that we usually come up with another story on the spot, especially if we are going to be telling a lie about a travel trip. (I mean, if you are going to lie about travel, you might as well think of a good lie.) A lie about a travel trip is certainly a long and drawn out lie that you would probably not want to talk about over the phone because it would be so long. However, I could see and equal amounts of lies being told over the phone and over Aim if the lie was only one word or only a couple of words, or maybe a lie you tell often. That way you wouldn't have to worry about the cues you might be giving away.