The Truth
We live in a society where the truth is no longer a matter of fact. It is an arbitrary element that changes with the wind.
Growing up, we were told to always tell the truth no matter what the consequences were. In a court of law, we are told to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We expect the truth in our everyday lives. Whether it’s at work, with friends, or online, we expect the truth.
What About Truth?
We, unfortunately, live in a time where the truth is hard to find and hard to come by. When we read an article, we expect to get the facts, the truth, and gain knowledge. Because knowledge is power! But that’s not what we get anymore. We get the writer’s feelings and biases rather than what we want. We have to decipher cryptic writing in order to get to the truth.
The Powerful
The term influencer has changed how we go about our daily lives. When someone with a large following puts out information that isn’t accurate or embellished, a large group of their followers believes it to be true. Influencers have more power than we believe them to. We all follow people on social media who live lavish lives which makes us envy our own, regardless if we believe it to be truthful or not.
Although not everyone believes everything influencers share or speak to, there is a large population who does. Take Kylie Jenner for example. Her Instagram posts don’t just happen. There is planning, editing, and money that goes into each post. It’s stated that she gets paid around $1 million per Instagram post. $1 MILLION.
Whether we want to believe it or not, we see these influencers who live amazing lives and one anyone would trade for in a heartbeat. But in reality, we don’t know the truth behind those posts. We don’t know the motive of an influencer’s post and what the goal is/was. We need to remind ourselves that things aren’t always as they seem. There’s more to every story than the cover.
This dangerous mindset has altered how we live our daily lives. It’s also unfortunately altered the political and media climate. When we want a quick answer if something is black or white we receive information overload rather than an easy answer.
Even in the workplace we get embellished answers for simple questions. Why? Because embellishing the truth sounds better and makes us seem more important.
The truth is hard to swallow because facing facts that don’t support or help us makes us feel small and weak. Do we like to hear that the reason we can’t lose weight is because we overeat? Do we want to hear something to be false that we‘ve always believed to be true’? We want to hear what we like to hear, not what we need to hear.
We’ve been searching for the truth since the beginning of time. Even the bible mentions the importance of the truth. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” — John 8:31–31.
The bible is one of the most interesting books ever written. One page will tell you to love thy neighbor but then you’ll learn that people with views other than your own won’t get into heaven. Just keep in mind that the truth isn’t arbitrary, it does exist.
Every day we can choose to believe what we want, or, find the truth. Some days it’s harder than others. Sometimes it’s harder to find the answer to our questions. But the answer IS out there.
Being truthful and honest is a characteristic that is so difficult to come by these days. We know the truth is out there because if it wasn’t, then said subject wouldn’t exist. We can all form our own opinions and have our own views. But at the end of the day, there is a right and wrong answer. Whether we like it or not, it’s the truth. The truth hurts. But the lies that try to hold back the truth hurt more.
