Truth is a hard concept to understand. What might be the truth to someone, might not be the truth to me. It has become something that depends on people’s memories and feelings to ascertain whether the truth is the actual truth. 

I once read a fanfiction of someone who manages to find a loophole during interrogation with a detective. Something about ‘a half-truth is also a truth’ and ‘it’s not fully lying because there’s truth in it’. This makes me reconsider what is true and what is fake, because now the concept of truth has a loophole by deflecting the whole truth and only giving a part of it and yet, it’s not exactly lying. 

In current society, emotions outweigh evidence and facts. Like refusing to vaccinate for Covid-19 despite factual assurance from doctors, or boycotting an artist for his in-game character despite the fact that the artist has no power in deciding his character’s role. Instead of facing the truth, some people would rather be influenced by fallacies and ignorance. 

When I scroll through social media, I notice that sometimes virality overshadows the truth. Correlated to journalism, one of the news values is human interest which refers to the resonance between news and audiences. Emotional provoking content appeals more to people rather than the true situation behind it, unless the actual story is more shocking than the fabricated version. Under the circumstances, truth and entertainment are clashing in terms of value but they also work well in capturing audiences. 

I sometimes was reminded that my personal value of truth is not the same for others. It doesn’t mean that one side is wrong, it simply means that truth has become more complex yet more important to deeply grasp the concept or its figurative meaning. Personally, it all depends on how I am willing to adjust the truth that overlaps with feelings, to make it as a truth or a fact that I can accept without too much judgement.