Jeff Hancock, Jeremy Birnholtz, Natalya Bazarova, Jamie Guillory, Josh Perlin, Barrett Amos
Department of Communication and Information Science Program
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
The authors introduce "butler lies" which they define as an act deception to manage social interactions. Butler lies are used to avoid and exit conversations, and to explain communication behavior. Examples would be like saying, IMing "cant talk, im studying" when you are not studying, just don't want to talk to that person. Or maybe telling someone "sorry I missed your call I was in the shower" when really you just didn't want to talk to them then. These lies are rampant in our society because of our many forms of 'always-on' communication such as cell phones, text messaging and email.
Thoughts
I think its awesome that someones finally coined a term to cover these little lies. 'Butler lie' has a fitting connotation in my opinion like 'respectful, nothing-personal, lie'. It is just like if someone came to your house and knocked, and you told your butler to tell them you weren't home. In fact that's probably why they chose butler lie. I think that the definition of a butler lie should also include deception to start a new conversation, such as, 'oh sorry my phone must have called you on accident, but anyway whats up?' or sending a 'i had a great time last night' text message to ex girlfriend by accident just to make her jealous.
No comments:
Post a Comment