Lying and gadgetry go hand in hand

We've certainly seen our fair share of broken promises when dealing with gadget producers, but a recent UK-based survey claims that "nearly 75-percent of people say gadgets, like Blackberrys for instance, made it easier to fib." While this might not come as any surprise to you, that figure is at least somewhat worrisome, as just over half of the respondents noted that using gadgets to bend the truth made them feel "less guilty" versus pulling the shades face to face. As expected, the workplace was the most favored locale to bust out a techno-fib, with "67-percent" saying they had using technology to fake sick, announce completed work they hadn't even started, or to "cover up a big mistake." Moreover, digitized communication has seemingly made it easier to lie to our very families, as "just over 40-percent" of those surveyed admitted to fibbing to loved ones with the help of their mobile / email. Of course, most folks claimed that their primary intentions were to "spare others' feelings," but we're not so sure these tricksters didn't start lying to the surveyors. Regardless, saving face has never been easier thanks to handheld / wireless communications, but at least someone's already thinking about curbing this purportedly growing problem -- at least, that's what we've been told.

[Via TechDirt]

[dov @ Dec 29th 2006 9:21AM]

say "PSP with 60GB hdd" and you can't turn around in the corridor.. :D

[NHAnimator @ Dec 29th 2006 9:50AM]

So how do we know this story is true?

[tiuk @ Dec 29th 2006 10:31AM]

I'm really not one to nitpick over grammar, and I might just be stupid, but I seriously read this sentence at least ten times before I understood what it was trying to say:

"nearly 75-percent of people say gadgets, like Blackberrys for instance, made it easier to fib."

I think what kept throwing me was the lack of the word "that" between "say" and "gadgets". Also, I had the web browser sized pretty small, so that sentence was presented on like three lines, which really broke it up. Anyway, I figured it out, so I'm proud of myself. *gives self gold star*

[CatchWithoutArms @ Dec 29th 2006 12:05PM]

Same here, i read it a few times and i was confused as to what they were saying. More importantly is that i had no idea what they were actually talking about until the last few sentences of the story.

What's up with that?

[Tom @ Dec 29th 2006 5:06PM]

Its perfectly correct (American) English to leave out the "that". I knew exactly what they were talking about and didn't have to look back at it at all.
*takes gold star from tiuk*