I remember the first time it happened to me: I was caught in a terrible lie between two friends that now hate each other. From my perspective, I was just validating both of their feelings. From theirs, I had broken their trust. As life continues, the only constants that remain are lies and distrust. However, it feels as if this generation has gotten significantly worse with their meticulous lies. Our generation doesn’t just bend the truth: we edit it, exaggerate it and then circulate it, and it seems like distrust is always the result.

Lies used to be whispered like a game of telephone, now they’re posted. It feels almost impossible to tell anyone anything because there is always a possibility that it will spread and, even worse, get posted and shared. This amplifies the spreading of misinformation, ultimately thinning the line of what is true and what is not. While it’s true that there has always been a “he said, she said” aspect to everything, it becomes far worse when those distortions spread across multiple social media platforms. The MIT Media Lab reported that 126,000 stories that were once singular were duplicated millions of times, spreading misinformation and deepening mistrust.

This also happens on smaller scales. For example, high school students post confrontations that may be false; others react, situations worsen and no one trusts each other. In my own experience, I have had lies and rumors conjured up about me that were so dishonest that I almost applauded their creativity. Social media made it infinitely worse, and it made me feel like sharing my opinions or situations about my life would be dangerous because it would be reshaped and spread around to many people. You never know what the people around you are thinking when you share your life experiences, so how could you prevent them from spreading a narrative of your life that benefits them?

Besides social media, it is generally just hard to know who will keep your information private. Granted, I’m aware that gossip has always been whispered around hallways, but it seems as if this generation is not whispering, but rather shouting. You tell one person one thing, you receive a text from someone else suggesting you said something completely different. Misinformation travels faster than truth, making the truth almost undefendable. According to Everyday Health, human beings lie at least once or twice a day. However in high school, where everyone needs something to talk about, it is often that drama will spread and not as often that the drama is guaranteed to be true. Those one to two lies spread into 100 people rumoring and circulating it.

The negative impact of these lies, gossip and spread of misinformation is trust issues. This generation faces deep problems with trust and as a result, we feel isolated. It is an endless loop of deconstructed truths that pushes people away from each other. When I look back on my situation being between two friends, I realize it was impossible to not lose their trust. No one trusts each other and how could they? It’s not on you when people lie, but being honest can’t harm you either. To cure a deep disease of distrust, people need to lessen their infatuation with gossip and begin to trust one another.